Guard Medico: 25% of Vermont Deployers have PTSD

According to news reports, a medical spokesperson for the Vermont National Guard claims that 25 percent of that state's citizen-soldiers deployed to Afghanistan in 2009-2010 may be diagnosable with various symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (P.T.S.D.). Approximately 3,000 Vermonters deployed to Afghanistan with 86th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (B.C.T.). One of those soldiers, Pfc. Joshua Pallotta, 25, committed suicide last month. His family cites PTSD and Traumatic Brain Injury (T.B.I.), injuries sustained during his deployment.

"We want people to know that our son took his life because he was struggling with PTSD that he couldn't get out of, he couldn't see another way out and we just don't wan't this to happen to another veteran ever again," his mother Valerie Pallotta told WCAX-TV in this Sept. 29 story.

An Oct. 3 news report from TV station WPTZ reads:

Col. Martin Lucenti, the Vermont Guard's chief medical officer, said earlier this year that about 25 percent of the 3,000 soldiers who were part of the Guard's 2010 deployment to Afghanistan have PTSD symptoms of varying degrees. [...]

Lucenti said another Guard suicide since Josh's is under investigation. Over the past decade, guard officials have tallied 10 suicides; nine from the Army side and one from the Air side, he said.

Lucenti estimated about 25 percent of service members returning from deployments have experienced some symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. While that is a contributing risk factor to suicide, medical and behavioral health experts said there are many other risk factors, including stressors like employment, housing, and alcohol and drug abuse.

The 86th BCT was one of only three U.S. National Guard brigade-sized units ever to manage full-spectrum operations for assigned provinces while deployed to Afghanistan. The unit was followed in 2010-2011 by Iowa's 2nd BCT, 34th Infantry "Red Bull" Division, and in 2011-2012 by Oklahoma's 45th Infantry "Thunderbird" BCT. The units' areas of responsibility included varying configurations of provinces within Eastern Afghanistan.

Pallotta served as a mortarman in Alpha Company, 3rd Battalion, 172nd Infantry, a unit headquartered in Jericho, Vt. Again according to news reports, most of his deployment was spent at Combat Outpost Herrera, Paktiya Province, along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. At least two Vermont soldiers lost their lives fighting there in August 2010: Sgt. Tristan Southworth, 21, of Walden, Vt. and Sgt. Steven Deluzio, 21, of Glastonbury, Conn.

Pallotta committed suicide Sept. 23, 2014. A funeral was conducted Sept. 29.

Working together with the non-profit Blue Star Mothers of Vermont, the family has created a fund to assist citizen-soldiers who have been diagnosed with PTSD and/or TBI. The postal mailing address is: P.O. Box 195, Bakersfield, VT, 05441. A Facebook page is here. Or visit: www.bluestarmothersofvermont.org

A recent Facebook post by the organization reads, in part:

Donations have been pouring into the Josh Pallotta Fund, which will be used to help our Vermont Veterans who struggle with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury. For those who would like to donate through our website, the donation page has now been set up so you can designate specifically where your donation will be targeted. For those who have already donated, please be assured that those donations have been targeted specifically to the Josh Fund. Acknowledgement letters will be sent out as soon as possible. The Pallotta family and the Blue Star Mothers of Vermont are humbled by the support that is being received.

An oft-cited 2012 Veterans Affairs study estimates that up to 22 veterans a day commit suicide. The Pallotta family has also expressed hope that the story of their son would motivate individuals who are considering suicide to instead reach out to resources such as the Veterans Crisis Line.

The Veterans Crisis Line is a toll-free and on-line resource staffed by trained Department of Veterans Affairs personnel, who can confidentially assist soldiers, veterans, families and friends toward local help and resources.

According to the Veterans Crisis Line website:

1-800-273-8255 and Press 1, chat online, or send a text message to 838255 to receive confidential support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Support for deaf and hard of hearing individuals is available.

Comic Book Review: 'Think Tank: Fun with PTSD'

Creators of "Think Tank," a monthly comic book about a super-genius young technologist and his battles from within the U.S. military-industrial complex, this week delivered a one-shot special issue titled "Fun with PTSD."

Published by Top Cow Productions, Inc. via Image Comics, the issue serves as a coda to the black-and-white series' initial 12-issue run. The series will relaunch in July as a full-color version. Think of it as a second season, similar to a TV series, in which the characters will continue in all-new stories.

Co-creator and writer Matt Hawkins reportedly came up with the "Think Tank" concept when his son told him that science was boring. Each issue even bears the warning: "Danger: Reading this book will make you smarter." Together with co-creator and artist Rahsan Ekedal, Hawkins has consistently presented challenging tales of morality and militarization, with gritty stories informed by today's technology forecasts.

Among other items, for example, past issues have featured submersible drones, high-tech camouflage suits, and genetically targeted weapons. As a bonus, each comic book typically features a number of text-only editorial pages, which point readers to additional references regarding the real-world, bleeding-edge technologies introduced in its stories. Think "Tom Clancy meets Danny Dunn" and you're in the ballpark.

The special PTSD issue hit the comic-book store racks, Wed., May 14. The 48-page edition is priced at $4.99, 25-cents of which will be donated to the Wounded Warrior Project. (About what Hawkins nets on a given book, after paying for artwork, publishing, and distribution, he writes.) A 20-page story involves prodigal scientist David Loren's attempt to create a tech-based solution to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (P.T.S.D.), in order to help save a Navy SEAL friend who is accused of (and admits to) murder. A breathless set of caption boxes introduces the story:

PTSD. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. A brain injury caused by exposure to or experiencing traumatic events. These are common in combat situations.

Less than half the men and women with combat related PTSD see treatment because of a perceived stigmatism of weakness associated with it in military culture.

It's difficult for elite soldiers like Navy SEALs to admit they have a problem. They're trained to control their minds, to be calm in the face of extreme pressure.

The issue also includes 6 pages of "Think Tank" tech talk, and a 3-page teaser story for the next season. Some 10-pages of the issue is a preview of "Wildfire," a new tech-thriller about modified-plant genetics. The latter is also a bit talky, but, like "Think Tank," may grow on some readers—particularly those engaged by edgy predictions of the near-future.

As read by this veteran, "Fun with PTSD" is well-intended, heart-felt, and mostly on target. Sure, the soldiers and scientists are all drop-dead sexy, and the drone-flying puppies are cute as @#$%. This is an entertainment, after all, and it's engaging enough to look past the occasional mistakes in mil-speak. (Note to copy editors: It should be "JAG Corps office," not "JAG core office.")

The special issue's biggest success, however, is in illuminating for new audiences the topic of soldiers' mental health and injury. An entire page of editorial, for example, is dedicated to debunking myths about Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, mostly using government-generated content:

• Myth: PTSD is brought on by a weakness of character. [...]

• Myth: People with PTSD are violent and unpredictable. [...]

• Myth: People with PTSD cannot tolerate the stress of holding down a job.

• Myth: People with PTSD, even those who have recovered, tend to be second-rate workers. [...]

• Myth: Once people develop PTSD, they will never recover. [...]

• Myth: Therapy and self-help are a waste of time. Why bother when you can just take a pill? [...]

• Myth: I can't do anything for a person with PTSD. [...]

For all the chewy facts and myth-busting, however, the comic pages themselves are a bit fuzzy on the details, potentially conflating Traumatic Brain Injury (T.B.I.), PTSD, and military veteran suicide. All are very real problems, and may have some overlap or relation to one another. Casual readers—the ones who skip over Hawkins' discussion points—may be left with the impression that they are all directly related, and probably causal: that TBI begets PTSD begets suicidal thoughts and actions. I'm not an expert, but I'm not sure that's the case.

Readers may also be left with the impression that PTSD could someday be cured by some sort of techno-magical targeted brain-rebuilder. There is no magic bullet, no pill, no therapy or treatment method that works for 100 percent of veterans diagnosed with PTSD. Everyone has their own war, and their own roads to recovery. That's why research and education continue to be so important.

Finally, given the melodramatic storyline, "Think Tank" readers may conclude that all military veterans are somehow mentally broken, "ticking time bombs," or former- or future- murderers. Such characterizations and stereotypes are themselves drivers of the stigmatization some veterans feel regarding mental health status, not only in military environments, but in today's news media.

Still, it's commendable that Hawkins and Ekedal have lobbed a reasonably informed—and informative—wake-up grenade at their readers. War isn't always easily addressed through technology, and neither are its after-effects. Sending the fictional scientist David Loren on an exploration of PTSD was a creative risk worthy of reward and recognition ... and continued conversations by its readers.

*****

The "Think Tank" series has been collected in three hardcopy trade paperbacks: Volume 1, Volume 2, and Volume 3.

Single issues, one-shots, and collections—including the recent "Fun with PTSD" special—are also available in digital formats via Comixology here.

A free PDF sample of Think Tank No. 1 is available from Top Cow Productions here.

Did File Photo Reinforce the 'Unstable Vet' Meme?

Blog-editor's update: We just spoke via e-mail to Des Moines Register reporter Clark Kauffman, who is mentioned below. It turns out that, while not attributed to Robert McKevitt in the story as printed, the mention of his past (?) military service was apparently at McKevitt's own insistence. Given that information, the inclusion of the file photo makes sense. In other words—our words—the subject "played the veteran card" himself.

The potential lesson-learned for journalists (and mil-bloggers)? "Not all veterans are broken, but not all veterans are necessarily heroes, either."

That said, writers of all kinds should remain vigilant against both the positive and negative stereotypes of veterans returned from war.

*****

When the Des Moines (Iowa) Register ran a "man bites dog" weird-news story on the front page of its Thurs., Feb. 20 print edition, it also managed to reinforce the negative "hot-tempered, hair-triggered" stereotype of military veterans returned from war.

The story involved Robert McKevitt, 27, of Spirit Lake, who recently lost his unemployment benefits in a December 2013 administrative hearing. (Note: Not exactly breaking news.) In an incident that occurred on an unspecified date at his former employer's Milford, Iowa warehouse, McKevitt reportedly used an 8,000-pound forklift to shake loose a stuck vending-machine candy bar for which he had paid.

The news article, written by investigative reporter Clark Kauffman, is 9 column inches of empty journalistic calories: "It's a familiar tableau: an overpriced vending-machine candy bar dangles on a spiral hook [...]" the article starts. "For most of us, that mini-drama usually ends in defeat. But not for Robert McKevitt of Spirit Lake, whose victory over an uncooperative vending machine ultimately cost him his job."

The print edition went with the straight-laced headline: "Iowan loses cool, job over vending machine."

The on-line edition played it with more snark: "The Twix bar, the forklift, and the fired Iowan." (See also partial screen capture, above.)

The story goes on, but the details are unimportant for the purposes of this discussion. The employer says McKevitt shook the machine and then dropped it with the fork lift. McKevitt says he carefully put the vending machine back against the wall. Either way, he was fired. Fork lifts are dangerous, and vending machines are dangerous, and employers can't afford employees who willfully create dangerous situations. The Red Bull Rising blog does not endorse the misuse of large power equipment. Even if it sounds funny in the papers.

The trouble is, the Des Moines Register also went out of its way to point out that McKevitt is a military veteran.

It did so because editors had a file photo of McKevitt, taken during his 2010-2011 deployment to Afghanistan along with 3,000 other citizen-soldiers of the Iowa Army National Guard's 2nd Brigade Combat Team (B.C.T.), 34th Infantry "Red Bull" Division. So they ran the photo of him, in patrol cap and combat uniform, talking with an civilian at an unspecified Forward Operating Base ("FOB").

The grip of McKevitt's pistol is cropped out in the print edition, but remains in the on-line version. The photo is two-thirds the size of the article's total text.

Kauffman's article also mentions McKevitt's service, probably to make the connection to the adjacent file photo. The article does not confirm whether McKevitt is still a member of the Iowa National Guard, however. It also does not seek to investigate or explain his unusual behavior in any way.

Instead, in words and pictures, the reader is left with the impression that McKevitt's past military service is somehow relevant to the behavior that resulted in his termination. Negative stereotype of veterans as "ticking time bombs"? Confirmed.

Because words matter. And pictures matter even more.

Don't think that veterans are negatively stereotyped? More on that in a minute.

Here's the dilemma presented by this article:

• If McKevitt's status as a veteran is relevant to the story, why make no attempt to constructively address the potential mental-health or cultural implications of veterans returned from deployment?

• If McKevitt's status as a veteran is NOT relevant to the story, then why was the misleading and provocative photo even included? Remember that at least one editor must have waved a yellow flag of caution prior to publication—the weapon in the photo, after all, was cropped out. The photo could have been cropped to just his face. Or, better yet—not used at all.

Kauffman, by the way, is a 2005 Pulitzer finalist, and a past health care reporter for the newspaper. His health-care expertise no doubt got over-ridden at the editorial level. Certainly, his copy in this instance—even given its light-hearted, light-on-news flaws—deserved better treatment than the way it was presented on page.

So did the past work of his Register colleagues, Tony Leys and Rodney White, who embedded with Iowa's 2-34th BCT multiple times during more than a year of coverage, including a few weeks in Afghanistan.

And so, ultimately, did the Register's readers. And the readers of its sister publications. Notably, the latter includes those that specifically serve military audiences.

It turns out that, because of the photograph, another Gannett-owned newspaper picked up the story. The Army Times ran it with the headline, "Guard member fired after using forklift to retrieve Twix from vending machine." (See partial screen capture, left.)

Still think the choice of photo was irrelevant, and not a slur against citizen-soldiers? The Army Times wouldn't have run the article without a military "connection." Its readers, however, were smarter than that. Here's what a couple of Army Times readers wrote in comments:

"This story has nothing to do with the National Guard. Attaching this story to the fact that he is in the National Guard is pointless." 

"The fact that this employee happened to be in the Guard has no relevance to his civilian employment and thus this story. Stop the Guard bashing."

Back at the Register's on-line story, an Iowa reader wrote: "If a story involves a U.S. veteran, his/her status as a U.S. veteran is relevant in any story regarding employment; in this 'improving' economy, veterans are having an extremely difficult time finding jobs."

Yep. And depicting them as potentially crazy, aggressive, or dangerous doesn't exactly help in the hiring progress, does it?

Of course, some editors might argue that, in the present age of "Support Your Troops" and "Thank You for Your Service," a negative stereotype of veterans can't possibly exist. A file photo of a soldier can't be any different than that of a coach or a teacher, right? This veteran disagrees. So do a couple of Army Times readers.

Others might argue that it was obviously a slow news day, and that the candy-bar article was meant to be read with a snicker, and that veterans should lighten up. After all, didn't readers also see that story Altoona reporter Timothy Meinch, the one that ran on page 4A of the same issue yesterday? "Veterans center celebrates move with ribbon-cutting." See? The Register loves and understands veterans!

Except that the "veteran loses cool, uses forklift to get candy bar" story was front-page news, not page 4A. Editors made that decision, too. Important stuff goes to the front.

Still, the candy bar story reached No. 2 "most popular" on the newspaper's website Thursday. Editors must have known what they were doing.

Final questions:

Would the Register's editors have so blithely mentioned out-of-context an unusually behaving individual's past military service, if the 8,000-pound forklift been a weapon of some sort?

Suppose there's a hypothetical incident of domestic or workplace violence sometime in the future, and someone involved just happens to be a veteran. Are the Register's editors canny enough to use that as teachable moment? To educate readers on issues like mental health, workplace violence, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (P.T.S.D.)? Or are they just going to jump to conclusions—or worse, cheap laughs?

Here's the short answer: Wait and see. Just don't be the veteran who loses his cool.

PTSD-awareness Video 'Dillion' Now Free On-line

A 45-minute documentary about an Iowa National Guard citizen-soldier who killed himself months after returning home from deployment is now available for viewing on-line free and in its entirety. Dillion Naslund, 25, of Galva, Iowa was a member of 2nd Brigade Combat Team (B.C.T.), 34th Infantry "Red Bull" Division.

The film "Dillon" debuted on Kansas Public Television station KPTS in early September, and was the subject of a previous post on the Red Bull Rising blog. To view the film, click here.

As presented on-line, Dillion's parents Jeff and Lisa Naslund appear in a 15-minute studio interview following the film. The Naslunds discuss how they hope the documentary might inspire other soldiers, veterans, military families and friends to seek help, information, and resources.

The subtitle of the documentary is "The true story of a soldier's battle with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder [P.T.S.D.]."

"Dillion came home, and after the dust had settled from the parties and the 'welcome homes,' you could see things were turning the wrong way," Jeff Naslund says at one point in the documentary. "He was having a hard time coping with life. He was trying to put that puzzle together. Every time he'd slip a piece in, it seemed like two more would slip out away from him. He was trying hard, but he couldn't pull it back together [...]"

The film succeeds most as a heartfelt tribute to a fallen friend and family member, as a warning to watch loved ones for signs of suicidal intent, and as a celebration of various community-based efforts to help other soldiers, veterans, and families.

Groups featured in the documentary include:

• The Iowa Chapter of the Patriot Guard Riders
• The Iowa Thunder Ride
• The Veterans First drop-in center in Alta, Iowa
• Serving Armed Forces Everyday (S.A.F.E.) of Le Mars, Iowa

As a work of documentary history, "Dillion" also provides insight into the life and values of modern-day small-town Iowa. This is an America that few still have opportunity or privilege to see, and that non-Midwesterners may find as foreign as wars fought overseas.

As a piece of journalism, the film is more problematic. To avoid encouraging "copycat" suicides, newspaper and broadcast reporters usually try to avoid focusing on funerals, or on grieving family and friends. "Dillion" features plenty of both. This is a documentary, however, not a news report produced under deadline. If parents or military unit leaders are concerned about the risk of inspiring copycat behaviors, "Dillion" might more ideally viewed as part of a guided conversation with youth or veterans, with professional or trained resources present.

(For suggestions on writing or talking about suicide, visit resources such as Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, and ReportingOnSuicide.org.)

In other ways, however, "Dillion" hits the right beats:

• Suicide is never a rational decision.

• Often, there are months of related, visible behaviors such as drinking and depression. Family and friends can often help.

• There are always resources that can help. Do not give up.

Ulitmately, the film stands as a testament to one family's desire to grow something good out of a heart-breaking bad.

Regardless of how or where it is viewed, let's hope that "Dillion" results in fewer stories like it.

*****

The Veterans Crisis Line is a toll-free and on-line resource staffed by trained Department of Veterans Affairs personnel, who can confidentially assist soldiers, veterans, families and friends toward local help and resources.

According to the Veterans Crisis Line website:

1-800-273-8255 and Press 1, chat online, or send a text message to 838255 to receive confidential support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Support for deaf and hard of hearing individuals is available.

Theater Group to Present on Military Sexual Trauma

The Telling Project, an Austin, Texas-based non-profit organization that has presented more than 20 grassroots theatrical presentations of veterans' military experiences nationwide since 2007, has announced a play focused on sexual assault in the military. Titled "Uniform Code," the play will premiere January 2014 at the Library of Congress' Coolidge Auditorium in Washington, D.C.

The group is currently fund-raising toward a $50,000 goal toward the play's production.

Organizers see the event as an opportunity to inform both the public and policy-makers: "The U.S. military has seen a thirty-nine percent rise in reported incidences of [Military Sexual Trauma, or M.S.T.] since 2010. Congress is currently deliberating on our nation's way forward in addressing this critical situation."

According to a project description on the crowd-funding website Indiegogo:

The Telling Project will bring a cast of [Military Sexual Trauma] survivors and survivors' family members to Washington, D.Cc to develop, rehearse and premiere UNIFORM CODE. UNIFORM CODE will be these individuals telling their own stories, a three-act, play constructed through interview, transcription and scripting, rehearsal and ultimately performance [...]

$50,000 will bring the cast and critical staff to Washington, D.C. for the two weeks necessary to assemble this performance. It will pay for the best artistic, production and promotion personnel that the vibrant District of Columbia theatre scene has to offer. And it will underwrite an outreach campaign through congressional offices, constituents and networks inviting, urging and, where necessary, pressuring congressional representatives to attend the premiere of UNIFORM CODE.

For more information and updates, visit the group's Indiegogo project page, or visit the Telling Project website.

In 2011, the Telling Project presented "Telling: Iowa City." In 2012, it presented "Telling: Des Moines." Iowa Public Radio interviewed a portion of the cast and crew here. One of three announced 2014 productions will be conducted at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis; details are pending.

Scenes from a Service-Dog Graduation

It's a sultry spring Friday afternoon outside the Gold Star Museum on Camp Dodge, Johnston, Iowa. The sun is out, the wind feels soft, and you can smell the earth. Even the military-grade grass on the adjacent parade field is beginning to turn green. To every thing, there is a season.

Inside, there is happy chaos. A hundred little crises have come together in an event that seems part high-school graduation open house, part family reunion, part end-of-season sports team banquet. The mood is upbeat and bittersweet, and there's often not a dry eye or nose in the room. A few funny stories, an emotional music video, and plenty of puppies. Labrador Retriever puppies, both black and tan.

Nobody plays "Pomp and Circumstance" (or should that be "Paws and Circumstance"?), but, later, there will be marble cake. And a barbecue. Because nothing good happens in Iowa without grilling a sacrifice.

More than 50 people have turned out to celebrate the next steps forward for nine Midwestern veterans and their new canine partners. The dogs are psychiatric service and mobility animals, trained by Paws & Effect to perform physical tasks that mitigate conditions such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (P.T.S.D.) and limited ranges of movement. They are trained to respond to their handlers' flashbacks or nightmares, for example, or to retrieve objects that are out of reach.

While the animals no doubt also provide an emotional or therapeutic benefit—in covering these kinds of stories, news reporters typically cite here the calming effects of pet ownership—they are not pets. Neither are they "companion," "emotional support," or "stress-relief" animals. They are working dogs, heading out into a working world.

Since 2006, the Des Moines, Iowa-based non-profit organization has trained therapy and service animals for Midwestern veterans and others, and educated and advocated regarding laws requiring service-animal access to public spaces. The organization is often augmented by trainers from Canine Craze, West Des Moines.

In the past two weeks, the veterans have met their service dogs for the first time. They've lived, eaten, slept, played, and worked with their partners, developing emotional bonds and basic understandings.

Think of it as Boot Camp, but with paws. After graduation, everything else is on-the-job training. And annual refresher courses.

As with military training, classroom presentations are followed by field exercises. The veterans, now dog-handlers, learn to navigate venues such as shopping malls, movie theaters, restaurants, and airport security checkpoints. When traveling by air, the dogs are trained to lay down in the underseat luggage area. The veterans practice the maneuver on a passenger aircraft parked at the Des Moines International Airport.

During the placement course, Paws & Effect temporarily bases its operations out of the Dodge House, a small, single-story facility across the street from the museum—and right next to the house inhabited by Maj. Gen. Timothy Orr, the adjutant general of the Iowa National Guard.

Named after the same Civil War general from which the Camp Dodge takes its name, the single-story Dodge House is often rented for social and other events. It features a kitchen, a sunroom, and a expansive front porch. After classroom discussions there, the veterans train with their dogs until both are tired, then sneak an occasional cat nap. After dinner, they watch movies and play training "games." The veterans cheekily rechristen the building the "Dog House."

The March 30 graduation is the first and last time that many recipients will see the families who helped raise their animals as puppies. Puppy-raisers include both civilian and military foster families, who volunteer to help dog-trainers from Paws & Effect socialize, work, and train animals at home and in public. (Under Iowa law, service-dogs-in-training are afforded the same rights as other service animals.)

The puppy-raiser relationship lasts approximately 18 months, during which time the non-profit carefully monitors the health, training, and personality of each animal. Paws & Effect pays for food, medicine, equipment, and other expenses. One dog can cost the organization up to $25,000 in supplies, care, and training.

At the same time, Paws & Effect identifies prospective recipients through channels such as the Iowa National Guard and the Community-Based Warrior Transition Unit (C.B.W.T.U.) at Rock Island Arsenal, Ill., an installation located on the Mississippi River along the "east coast" of Iowa.

While there have been other dogs placed individually, Friday marks the first formal placement course and graduation for Paws & Effect. Three more litters are already in the works for placement in late-2012 and early-2013. One is named after military land navigation terms, such as "Pace," "Ridge," and "Hilltop". The other is named after radio-friendly phonetic alphabet characters, such as "Charlie," "Oscar," and "Victor". (Nicole Shumate, director and dog-trainer-in-chief for Paws & Effect, reserves the "Alfa"-dog label for herself.)

The 2012 class notably includes "Ryder" and "Archer," two of the "Red Bull" litter named last year in honor of the 34th Infantry "Red Bull" Division. Others still in training include "Havoc," "Avancéz" (who goes by "Van"), and "Sabre."

The 2012 graduating Paws & Effect service dogs and their human partners are:

• Anthem and Joe
• Archer and Troy
• Hero and Dustin
• Honor and Wade
• Liberty and Casey
• Merit and Mitch
• Roo and the Iowa National Guard. (Roo will be a "facility dog," used for hospital visits to wounded warriors, Soldier Readiness Processing, behavioral health assessments, and other missions.)
• Ryder and Bill
• Valor and Dean

The puppy-raisers have prepared "legacy" books—collections of letters, photos, memorabilia documenting their puppies' early lives. As groups of puppy-raisers, veterans, and dogs are recognized with applause, trainers and others tell stories about each match or pairing:

"It was clear that Anthem was going to be Joe's dog from the start," says Paws & Effect director Nicole. "I just wish Tammy had told me that Anthem liked carrots for rewards. And not just any carrots, mind you: They had to be coins. And they had to have ridges."

****

"I felt like I was writing a dating-service ad for my dog," says puppy-raiser Travis, about starting to write a note for Hero's legacy book: "'My dog is the best-looking and smartest dog.'" He ended up writing five pages.

****

"My dog is just the right balance of challenge and complement," says one recipient. Another says, "I got my smile back."

****

A number of the veterans observe the placement course was the first they'd slept soundly in a long time. Another veteran reports that, twice in one night, his dog had woken him from a nightmare by licking his face.

****

Nicole notes that one veteran had neglected to tell her that he might have a leg amputated in coming months. She and the puppy-raiser gave the dog a 6-day crash course in mobility-assistance skills, such as how to retrieve objects. "At one point, I was getting hourly updates: 'The dog is picking up keys ...' 'The dog is picking up frozen peas ...'" Apparently, the training took, she says, because the veteran later wondered why "the dog will not stop handing me things!"

****

Family members also offer words of wisdom, thanks, and humor. "During class, I was the one who asked one day about what happens when my husband and I start getting a little ... 'active,'" one spouse shares, to friendly laughter. "Would the dog think I was hurting him? The group decided I should ask you, the puppy-raisers, about that." As she makes eye contact with the couple who raised her husband's new service dog, the room breaks into giggles. Not to worry, the couple responds: The dog is fully trained.

After the laughter, as promised, there is cake. And barbecue.

"To everything, there is a season."

It is springtime in Iowa.

You don't need to be a dog to smell the possibilities.

Photos courtesy of Paws & Effect.

Stressed-out Soldiers Can Always Go to the Dogs

Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan--Since July 2010, a 3-year-old yellow Labrador Retriever named Sgt. First Class Timmy, along with U.S. Army handler and occupational therapist Capt. Theresa Schillreff, have reached out a helpful paw and hand to service members struggling with deployment stresses, whether those stem from combat experiences or problems at home.

"It's helping people understand that if I have 'X, Y, and Z' going on in my life, how can I cope with that and make sure that I can do my job, meet our mission, and not be sent home," says Schillreff, a member of 254th Medical Detachment, an active-duty U.S. Army combat-stress unit stationed at Miesau Army Depot, Germany. On Bagram Airfield, the unit's Freedom Restoration Center is a 3- to 5-day program that offers a restorative environment to critically stressed-out soldiers. "We really try to fit them up for success."

While soldiers catch up on sleep, nutrition, and physical fitness, the center also offers classes on anger and stress management, resiliency, positive thinking, and leisure and life skills. Staff includes psychiatrists, psychologists, occupational therapists, chaplains, social workers, and nurse practitioners. Service members from all military branches may be referred to the center by a healthcare provider or chaplain. They can also self-refer, although only with approval from a commander.

Timmy and 3-year-old Sgt. First Class Apollo, a black Lab, are the only two military therapy dogs in Afghanistan. The first such dogs deployed to Iraq in 2007, Schillreff says. Timmy and Apollo are part of an ongoing study on the effectiveness of dogs in addressing soldier stress downrange.

Under General Order No. 1, soldiers stationed on Combat Outposts ("COP") or Forward Operating Bases ("FOB") are not allowed to maintain "morale dogs" or mascots. That doesn't always stop soldiers from adopting animals as pets, however, which places those soldiers at risk of disease and injury. "My personal opinion on it is that we seek out affection and comfort, and that's something that dogs can do for us," says Schillreff. "We're trying to use it in a therapeutic way. Having the dogs with the combat-stress teams, you can still have that morale boost, but you have a dog who is well-trained, and who doesn't come with the risks of these wild animals."

Timmy wears either a Universal Camouflage Pattern (U.C.P.) uniform while on duty, or a similarly colored bandana during hot summer months. In addition to long walks and playing fetch, the calm and steadfast canine has made a hobby of collecting the uniform patches of those soldiers with whom he has visited. His collection includes the distinctive emblem of the Iowa Army National Guard's 2nd Brigade Combat Team (B.C.T.), 34th Infantry "Red Bull" Division (2-34th BCT), scheduled to return to the United States later this summer.

Timmy has been trained to be approachable and non-aggressive, Schillreff says. The dog was donated to the U.S. Army by America's Vet Dogs, an affiliate organization to the Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind, Inc., Smithtown, New York. According to the organization's website, military therapy dogs placed in combat-stress clinics provide a supportive, non-judgmental presence to service members during interactions with healthcare providers. "The dogs' handlers have reported that soldiers have talked longer, and more meaningfully, to mental health professionals when the dogs were present."

While considered a service dog, Timmy's role as a therapy or emotional support dog differs from that of a "Red Bull" litter of psychiatric service dogs currently being trained by Paws & Effect, a Des Moines, Iowa-based non-profit.

"Timmy fits in to our mission in a lot of different ways," says Schillreff. "For the Freedom Restoration Center, he is here when we do our one-on-one interviews with service members. He is available during leisure time, to play. We sometimes have him in our classes with us, so there can be some interaction there as well. Just petting a dog helps lower your heart rate, which reduces stress. He can provide comfort to people just by laying at their feet ..."

"Our other mission with Timmy is with outreach and prevention. We do what we call 'walkabouts'--we take the dog for a walk. [...] We just go around and let people pet him and play with him. It's kind of a morale boost--he provides a comfort of home that people don't otherwise get--but he also gives us an 'in.' He opens doors."

Timmy's rank is something of a military tradition--the animal normally outranks the handler. It's unusual for an officer to be lucky enough to be tasked as dog-handler, says Schillreff. Still, Timmy is unlikely to promote to major prior to Schillreff's return to Germany in July. Timmy has one more year on his 2-year deployment to Afghanistan. "I have never actually owned a dog before ..." she says. "I think I've had one of the best deployment jobs ever."

As part of his duties, Timmy occasionally attends memorial services, and mission debriefings after convoys have experienced significant injuries. At such times, Timmy serves as an easy-to-recognize, easy-to-approach reminder of available behavioral health resources. "Going out regularly helps us become familiar with units, so that when they do have hard times--a significant injury or death--they can call me up," says Schillreff. "Then we go out, and provide comfort and support."

"People stop by all the time to visit him, media included," says Schillreff. "That's the nice thing about him. He doesn't discriminate. He doesn't care who you are or what your rank is. When he puts on his uniform, it says, 'I'm doing my job. I'm here for you.'"

Sometimes You Get the Bull ...

When you're a hammer, everything tends to look like a nail. And, when you're steeped in months of research and writing--like the Red Bull Rising blog--everything tends to look like it's connected with your topic.

Take, for example, a couple of recent posts at Tom Ricks' "Best Defense" blog at Foreign Policy magazine, which regarded the World War II origins of combat psychiatry and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (P.T.S.D.).

The blog posts mention the early published work of Army Dr. (Capt.) Herbert X. Spiegel, a psychiatrist assigned to an unnamed infantry battalion in World War II Tunisia.

The 34th Infantry "Red Bull" Division participated in Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa. My interest was piqued: Perhaps the doctor was a member of a Red Bull unit?

Spiegel ended up a clinical-research pioneer and popularizer of the use of hypnosis. He was once even involved in the treatment of the multiple-personality patient on whom was based the book and movies "Sybil."

Finding out whether Spiegel and the Red Bull were connected turned into a lunch-hour filled with frenzied Internet searches. The academic papers didn't seem to offer specifics of his military service, nor did news articles or obituaries. Ultimately, the 90-percent answer came in the words of his wife and research partner, Dr. Marcia Greenleaf, posted on a 2010 web-tribute to Spiegel:

Herb’s experience in World War II shaped his clinical thinking and research ... As a combat surgeon with the 1st Infantry Division in the invasion of North Africa, he used hypnosis on the battlefield ... Wounded when a German tank broke through the allied ranks, he was awarded the Purple Heart and shipped back to the US ... Assigned to teach military psychiatry at Mason General Hospital, he used hypnosis to treat pain, trauma and anxiety, began his research and his amazing journey with hypnosis and short-term psychotherapy ... He was always ahead of his time. [...]

As an author, Herb’s first publications focused on his experience as a battalion surgeon during the North African campaign in WW II. ... He wrote his first papers on combat psychiatry and physio-neurosis – the first clinical identification of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. [Emphasis added.]

So, there I had it. Spiegel was most likely part of the 1st Infantry Division--the "Big Red One"--still red, but not a Red Bull. The 1st and the 34th divisions hit different beachheads. One went toward Oran, the other toward Algiers. "Sometimes, you get the bull. Sometimes, the bull gets you."

On the other hand, Spiegel seems to have established a professional beachhead of his own, one that launched his later work in hypnosis. He changed--or began to change--how we view PTSD as a military and as a society.

Speigel's early work resonates even to present-day. In addition to Ricks' musings, for example "War" author Sebastian Junger cites Spiegel (see excerpt here) when exploring the battlefield behavior of Medal of Honor recipient Salvatore Giunta:

During World War II, the British and American militaries conducted a series of studies to identify what makes men capable of overcoming their fears. A psychiatrist named Herbert Spiegel, who accompanied American troops on the Tunisia campaign, called it the "X-factor": "Whether this factor was conscious or unconscious is debatable," he wrote for a military journal in 1944, "but this is not so important. The important thing was that it is influenced greatly by devotion to their group or unit, by regard for their leader and by conviction for their cause. In the average soldier, which most of them were, this factor ... enabled men to control their fear and combat their fatigue to a degree that they themselves did not believe possible."

*****

You can see Ricks' blog posts that inspired my little lunch-hour research junket here and here.

Regarding a third PTSD post, less related to WWII, those with an interest in the National Guard would do well to overlook Mr. Ricks' uncharacteristic sleight toward citizen-soldiers--he hypothesizes that "disturbances [may] run even deeper in Guard and Reserve units coming home from Afghanistan and Iraq," citing a 1972 (?!) study that observed "older, less experienced and less educated soldiers were high risk for the development of psychiatric symptoms"--and delve deep into the reader comments. Specifically, be on the lookout for comments from "Hunter." There's some great insights in there!

About that "older and less experienced and less educated" comment, however? I'm not sure that the draft-age U.S. Army National Guard of 1972 is comparable to the operational-reserve National Guard of 2011. At risk of falling into one of my own pet petards regarding blog commenters--too many of us relish argument based on personal experience rather than research--I'll say that I've seen Army National Guard soldiers generally best their active-duty counterparts in terms of maturity, education, work- and life-experience, and established emotional support networks.

I'm not saying that we're perfect--too many of us are dying at our own hands--I'm just saying that we may have different problems. We invite further study.

Playing Combat Doctor on TV

FORT IRWIN, Calif., Sept. 27--The media circus has successfully hopped from Forward Operating Base ("FOB") Denver to FOB King, where tomorrow morning we'll split up and hitchhike to opposite ends of the battlefield. The visiting TV crews have milked the remaining desert daylight to record their first video postcards home, and now we're stumbling around the logistical hub of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team (B.C.T.), 34th Infantry "Red Bull" Division (2-34th BCT) in search of some more stories before bedtime.

FOB King is the temporary National Training Center home to the 334th Brigade Support Battalion, a unit comprising the brigade's transporters, maintainers, and medical professionals in its respective "Alpha," "Bravo," and "Charlie" companies.

The medical company, affectionately known as "Charlie-Med," is one level of care up from the "aid stations" found in the warfighting battalions. Out there, the medical mission is to patch 'em up good enough to get them here. There's a pharmacy here, and an X-ray machine. In addition to trauma specialists, Charlie-Med also has behavioral-health and physical-therapy professionals on staff. If they can't fix you here, they stabilize you and get you as fast as they can to an even higher-care hospital.

We roll into Charlie-Med's emergency room to find nothing but bright lights, clean floors, and a crew ready to go off-shift. The medics are game, however, to run through an impromptu full-speed training event while on camera. "It'll be hard to go back to 'real world,'" one of the journalists says later. "There's a story every step out here. Back home, we have to chase them."

Staff Sgt. Laura Schlitz of Osceola volunteers to be the patient, a simulated lower leg amputation. Looking on as the cameras are rolling, Staff Sgt. Jessica Beswick winces and chuckles with every needle stick that's attempted on her colleague. "She's so small, they're having a hard time finding a vein," the Iowa City soldier explains. "It's good training, particularly for working on Afghan patients."

After the simulation, one of the journalists asks a hard question, one about the possibility of losing patients.

"We tell people we do everything we can do," says Capt. Sean Bigler, a physician's assistant from McCook Lake, S.D. Bigler is in charge of the team receiving this evening's simulated patient. "We try to give them hope, we try to give them the faith that we will do everything that we can do to help them." It is a moment of realism and reflection, but one that quickly evaporates with a cheerful, confident smile.

That smile persists, by the way, even after Bigler realizes that his cherished University of Nebraska flag--he's a graduate--has been reversed by some Charlie-Med pranksters. Someone observes that Husker handwriting looks an awful lot like prescription pad scribbles.

For the record, Bigler says that, for show purposes, he would've chosen a different patient. "We should have gotten one of those big, beefy Midwestern Guys. We could've rolled him around the dirt and gotten him messy," says the doc. He nods toward the cameras, eyes gleaming. "Of course, what I really want to do is direct ... Doesn't everyone?"

*****

Want to see more of this training event? Check out print and video stories from KCRG-TV9/The Cedar Rapids Gazette here, and from WHO-TV13 here.

Red Bulls Returning, Part 1

Minnesota Public Radio has recently posted an in-depth, multi-layered, multi-media coverage of the return of the 34th Infantry Division. The U.S. 34th Infantry "Red Bull" Division comprises both Minnesota and Iowa units, among others.

It's great and creative stuff, and I can't even begin to do it all justice here. Of particular note, however, are the creative touches such as superimposing the outline of Minnesota over the map of Iraq. What an easy-to-comprehend way to show people the distances involved!

For Red Bull soldiers such as me, who face a potential deployment later this year, the Minnesota Public Radio coverage offers a smorgasbord of insights. Do yourself and your family a favor, and go the overall link right here.

Major topics include:

"Family and War" including discussions of using technology to keep in touch with your family, and Blue Star Mothers (mothers of deployed soldiers) support programs.

"Who are the Red Bulls?" includes discussions of the deployment's effects on recruiting, and the missions pursued by the Minnesota National Guard soldiers.

"Adjusting to Civilian Life" includes two great articles--one on transitioning back to work, one on transitioning back to home. It also covers veterans helping veterans, and even a "VIP center" for soldiers at the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport.

"Mental Illness and Treatment" leads off with "new ways to diagnose Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)," and makes the technical more personal with the story of one Minnesota veteran's post-2004-deployment experience. There's a great story on the (lack of?) availability of mental health resources for rural veterans.

"Living with Physical Injuries" includes some good perspective on the types of injuries most often suffered by our troops.

Finally, there's an "Interactive Guide to Coming Home by and for Veterans and Their Families."

Good stuff! I hope that some major news venue in Iowa--the Des Moines Register, perhaps, or Iowa Public Radio--manages to put similar thought and talent to my own unit's deployment. More thoughts to come ...

Part 1 of 3