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"An Air Force Reserve 403rd Wing "Hurricane Hunters" WC-130J is scheduled to depart May 19 as the military's first-ever media flight compromised solely of bloggers. This flight gives bloggers from across the country an opportunity only available to traditional media outlets until now. Members from the international blogging community will be able to share with their audiences what it is like to ride with the Hurricane Hunters while learning what goes into training for one of the most challenging missions in the Air Force. Immediately after their flight, bloggers will be able to update their sites in an adjacent computer room. The two-hour flight over the Gulf of Mexico will give a new audience a better understanding of how the Hurricane Hunters collect life-saving data inside storms and highlighting the coming hurricane season which starts June 1. According to a Pentagon survey, 94% of people born after 1990 actively either blog or use social networking, such as Facebook, and new media ranks number two behind television on how people receive information. The Air Force Reserve and the 403rd are pioneers when it comes to embracing new media and are proud to offer this opportunity to the blogging community. "Social Networking and blogging is not the communication of the future, but of today. This is the way current generations communicate and the Air Force and Air Force Reserve needs to keep up with how technology is evolving and making communication faster and easier," said Brigadier General James J. Muscatell, Jr., commander of the 403rd Wing. This flight is another example of how the 403rd is communicating through new media, the Wing mission that includes the maintainers, the Hurricane Hunters and the Flying Jennies. The public can keep up with news about the 403rd Wing via Facebook Groups listed under '403rd Wing', 'AF Reserve Hurricane Hunters', '815th Flying Jennies' and '41st APS'. In addition, full-resolution photos can be found u

Pfc. Jordan May, a 26-year-old gunner, fell into a deep sleep that night and never woke up. In the six years since the war in Iraq began, it's been standard practice to honor troops who die overseas as patriots. But for the families of May and other Fort Hood soldiers who died on post or close to home, there typically are no news reports and no flags lowered to half-staff. The hidden demons that follow troops home - mental stress, depression and traumatic brain injury, to name a few - don't always go away. When left unresolved, they can lead to divorce, drug or alcohol abuse and suicide. And as the March 19 anniversary of the start of the war draws near, there are more questions than answers in the stateside deaths of May and 13 other Fort Hood troops in the past eight months. The Army typically releases general details of how a soldier has died in Iraq, usually from small-arms fire, an explosive, an accident or an unspecified noncombat incident. But when a soldier dies at Fort Hood, friends and relatives often can only speculate about any role the war might have played.

"Barbara Tierney of Carmel, NY wants to help our Veterans find FREE and EFFECTIVE treatments in their battle with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Psychiatrists, NLP practitioners, Yoga instructors, Bio-Feedback providers, Reiki practitioners, Social Workers, QiGong Instructors, Acupuncturists, Hypnotherapists, Cognitive Behavior Therapists, ANYONE that can help to ease the pain and trauma that our service men and women are dealing with. These people put their lives on the line so that WE can be safe. Why not do something to help them? "

Jason Haines was in survival mode in 2005 when a car pulled out in front of him on a side street in New Britain. In his mind, Haines was still patrolling the streets of Baghdad in a Humvee with the U.S. Army, firing his .50-caliber shotgun at enemy insurgents who set off roadside bombs. Haines beeped his car's horn, but the driver wouldn't speed up. In a rage, Haines began tailgating the car - which, he soon discovered, was an unmarked police cruiser. Haines wasn't arrested that day, but he came close to joining hundreds of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans nationwide whose untreated war-related emotional and mental afflictions - usually termed post-traumatic stress disorder - lead to minor criminal arrests.

U.S. military veterans from three decades pass through Judge Sarah Smith's courtroom here, reporting on their battles with drug addiction, alcoholism and despair. Those who find jobs and stabilize their lives are rewarded with candy bars and applause. Those who backslide go to jail. Smith radiates an air of maternal care from the bench. As the veterans come before her, she softly asks: "How are you doing? Do you need anything?" But if a veteran fails random drug tests, she doesn't flinch at invoking his sentence. Her court is part of a new approach in the criminal justice system: specialized courts for veterans who have broken the law. Judges have been spurred by a wave of troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, battling post-traumatic stress disorder and brain injuries and stumbling into trouble with the law. But advocates of the courts say they also address a problem as old as combat itself. "Some families give their sons or daughters to service for their country, and they're perfectly good kids. And they come back from war and just disintegrate before our eyes," said Robert Alvarez, a counselor at Fort Carson in Colorado who is advocating for a veterans court in the surrounding county. "Is it fair to put these kids in prison because they served and got injured?"

A lot of soldiers say war is hell, and then, they won't say anything else. That wasn't good enough for one west suburban playwright. She's created a new collaboration called the Vet Art Project. It brings veterans and artists together to make art out of war. The group's vision is a big one: it aims to be a national model for how veterans can tell their stories and get the public to listen.

Deploying to Afghanistan, Craig Mullaney writes, "was a slow immersion, like Dante's descent into the Inferno."\n\nOne moment, Mullaney and his Army Ranger platoon waited in an airport terminal at Fort Drum, N.Y. Televisions were tuned to Major League Baseball games. The soldiers ate what one jokingly called their "Last Supper" - rubbery T-bone steaks with Mexican rice.\n\nThey received an intelligence briefing warning them of the dangers awaiting them in Afghanistan, including ticks, cobras and camel spiders that can run more than 30 mph. Then they marched onto a cavernous cargo plane. Two flights and 7,000 miles later, Mullaney and his men stepped out into the dusty, baking heat of an airbase in Kandahar. It was 128 degrees, in the shade.\n\nIn that summer of 2003, Afghanistan had fallen off the front page. Attention had shifted to the war in Iraq. Meanwhile, the Taliban regime that had been toppled by the U.S. invasion following 9/11 was resurgent. Operating from across the border in Pakistan, where Osama bin Laden was suspected to be hiding, Taliban and al-Qaida fighters harassed local villages and Western occupiers.\n\nMullaney's Army Ranger training did not cover desert warfare, which had been dropped in 1995. Studying modern military history at West Point, he took just one paragraph of notes on Afghanistan, involving the Russians' failed experience there in the 1980s.

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"In Changing the Organizational Culture, his article in Small Wars Journal, Caldwell writes that it's time for the Army to rethink its approach to the new media. Caldwell has some experience here: he was the person you saw in the Baghdad press conferences last year, speaking for the Multi-National Force [MNF, as he refers to it below]. Wherever you stand (or stood) on the war, what he's saying here bears reading, as he's proposing a new approach: Recent experiences in Iraq illustrate how important it is to address cultural change and also how very difficult it is to change culture: After MNF-I broke through the bureaucratic red-tape and was able to start posting on YouTube, MNF-I videos from Iraq were among the top ten videos viewed on YouTube for weeks after their posting. These videos included gun tape videos showing the awesome power the US military can bring to bear. Using YouTube - part of the new media - proved to be an extremely effective tool in countering an adaptive enemy."

"Part of it, I think, is because we don't have what it takes to offer to young vets," Bogan said. "They're looking for places with Wi-Fi (wireless Internet service) so they can sit down and do laptops. A lot of posts don't have this facility. They're just not into shooting pool. They'd rather play video games or use their laptops." The ambience of American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars halls doesn't appeal to young veterans, said Karl P. Karl, director of the Veterans Transition Center in Marina. Some of the turnoffs, he said, include drinking in the lounge - "many younger vets want a clean, sober environment" - a feeling among young veterans that they aren't welcome, and infighting within and fragmentation of veterans' organizations.

What exactly is a "mental disorder"? For that matter, what criteria should determine whether any condition is a "disease" or a "disorder"? Is "disease" something like an oak tree-a physical object you can bump into or put your arms around? Or are terms like "disease" and "disorder" merely abstract, value-laden constructs, akin to "injustice" and "immorality"? Are categories of disease and disorder fundamentally different in psychiatry than in other medical specialties? And-by the way-how do the terms "disease," "disorder," "syndrome," "malady," "sickness," and "illness" differ? Anyone who believes there are easy or certain answers to these questions is either in touch with the Divine Mind, or out of touch with reality. To appreciate the complexity and ambiguity in this conceptual arena, consider this quote from the venerable Oxford Textbook of Philosophy and Psychiatry: "The term 'mental illness' is probably best used for those disorders that are intuitively most like bodily illness (or disease) and, yet, mental rather than bodily. This of course implies everything that is built into the mind-brain problem!"1(p11) In a single sentence, we are already grappling with the terms "illness," "disorder," and "disease," not to mention Cartesian psychology! And yet-daunting though these issues are-they are central to the practical task now before the DSM-V committees: figuring out what conditions ought to be included as psychiatric disorders.

Last week, another Army general, this time Army Maj. Gen. Mark Graham, entered this category, coming forward to share his personal experience with the stigma of suicide following his son's 2003 suicide. In his efforts, which must be personally and professionally trying, we can see the elements of wisdom at work.

A VA psychiatrist hospitalized Juneman but never notified the National Guard unit of his patient's distress over redeployment. Juneman was released that month, then missed follow-up appointments. In early March 2008, Juneman hanged himself in his Pullman apartment. His body was discovered some 20 days later, The Spokesman-Review newspaper reported. His death underscores an unsettling new reality for VA health-care providers. Unlike in decades past, they now often treat veterans headed back to war. And this can pose an ethical challenge for VA doctors if they think PTSD, traumatic brain injury or other unhealed wounds could put a patient or others at greater risk on the front line.

This weekend, a phenomenal group of gals (along with hundreds of boy scouts on their own excursion) gathered on the Battleship Massachusetts as the Female Faces of War Conference and Overnight Adventure set sail. One can only wonder what the men who served on that ship would have to say about all of this; but, we sure did have a great time.

In Maj. Thomas Jarrett's stress management class surrounded by concrete blast walls, American troops are urged not to accept post-traumatic stress disorder as an inevitable consequence of war. Instead, Jarrett tells them to strive for "post-traumatic growth." During a 90-minute presentation entitled "Warrior Resilience and Thriving," Jarrett, a former corporate coach, offers this and other unconventional tips on how troops can stay mentally healthy once they return home. He quotes Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, Paradise Lost author John Milton and German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, among others. Walking through the crowd of young GIs in the makeshift classroom, Jarrett urges them to fight their "internal insurgents."

Some of the ideas garnered include rock climbing walls, yoga classes, Wii gaming systems, and Cross Fit training at the Wellness Center. Also in the Wellness Center, Soldiers and Families can pursue smoking cessation classes, biofeedback, and nutritional counseling. At the Cognitive Enhancement and Assistance Center, financial classes and Military Family Life Consultants are available. The Spiritual Fitness Center provides all faiths a place to gather for small group or individual meditation, Battlefield Ethics classes, and access to a chaplain 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.