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Ilona Meagher

Omaha World Herold | Vet Denied Gun Permit Over PTSD Care - 0 views

  • Tim Mechaley trained fellow Marines to fire .50-caliber machine guns. He qualified as a marksman. He fought in the battle for Fallujah and received a combat medal with a "V" for valor. Back home, he uses a rifle for target shooting. Yet, when Mechaley sought to buy a 9-mm Ruger pistol for protection at his midtown apartment, the Omaha Police Department rejected his application for a gun permit. "I was trusted by the {federal} government to carry a loaded weapon, but now I am not allowed to purchase one by my local government," he said. Mechaley, 32, has received counseling for post-traumatic stress disorder related to his service in Iraq. While completing an application for a gun permit, he responded "yes" to a question that asked whether he was being treated for a mental disorder. "I circled yes because I wanted to be completely honest," he said. As explanation, he wrote "PTSD from Iraq Marine combat veteran" on the form. Mechaley's application on Jan. 10 was rejected, he was told, because of that answer. After talking with police, Mechaley said he had been "too truthful" on the application.
  • Mechaley said his PTSD symptoms have improved with counseling. While serving in Iraq in 2004 and '05, Mechaley watched eight friends die in combat. When he returned home, he began to suffer from flashbacks and had trouble sleeping. He was diagnosed with PTSD and started going to counseling. In 2006, he was recalled to active duty to help train Marines to shoot. He still serves in the Marine Reserves. "I used to go in (to see the counselor) once a week while I was in the service, but everything is so much better now," he said. "I no longer have flashbacks or trouble sleeping, and I see the counselor only about once every three months."
Ilona Meagher

InCite | Winter Soldier Memoirs: The Underside of War - 0 views

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    "The VA's position on PTSD-combat links is untenable, though. Critics such as independent journalist Ilona Meagher, who edits the online journal PTSD Combat: Winning the War Within, argue that the government willfully ignores PTSD issues, which leads to troubling results such as increased troop suicides. "
Ilona Meagher

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists | The militarization of neuroscience - 0 views

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    During World War II, the scientific field was atomic physics. Afraid that the Nazis were working on an atomic bomb, the U.S. government mounted its own crash project to get there first. The Manhattan Project was so secret that Congress did not know what it was funding and Vice President Harry S. Truman did not learn about it until FDR's death made him president. In this situation of extreme secrecy, there was almost no ethical or political debate about the Bomb before it was dropped on two cities by a bureaucratic apparatus on autopilot.
Ilona Meagher

Military Times | DoD may curb Facebook, Twitter access - 0 views

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    The Defense Department is all a-Twitter about whether to allow service members continued access to highly popular social networking sites on government computers because of network security, bandwidth and privacy concerns, a spokesman said Thursday.
Ilona Meagher

USNI Blog | What is the Naval Institute Blog? - 0 views

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    What is the Naval Institute Blog? An independent online forum where you can express thoughtful, productive ideas, insights and opinions on issues affecting our Nation's defense. We're not the Navy nor any government agency.
Ilona Meagher

Hartford Courant | Lawmaker: Courts Should Take Veterans' Problems Into Account - 0 views

  • Advocates for veterans report an increase in the number of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans facing charges such as domestic violence, firearms violations, breach of peace and drunken driving.A Connecticut lawmaker says the court system should be able to identify troubled veterans and refer them to mental health specialists, the same way family courts and drug courts work."Our troubled veterans may not need to be locked up if their combat experience has led to psychological wounds," said Senate Majority Leader Martin Looney, a New Haven Democrat who has introduced legislation to create a separate criminal docket for veterans.This mirrors actions elsewhere in the country. Some states are setting up veterans' courts or enacting laws to deal with veteran offenders. In 2008, Buffalo, N.Y., created the first Veterans Treatment Court after a judge noticed that hundreds of veterans were showing up in his courtroom facing minor charges. California and Minnesotahavepassed legislation to allow nonviolent veterans to forgo jail time if they can prove that their combat experience played a role in the criminal behavior.Looney said he introduced his bill after hearing stories about returning Iraq and Afghanistan veterans in Connecticut and across the nation ending up in jail. Connecticut also is using a $2 million grant from the federal Center for Mental Health Services to devise a program that will keep veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder out of jail.
  • Reluctant To Report SymptomsPeople with experience in overseas conflicts, or who work with those who have recently returned, often refer to one overriding symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder in recent veterans."Anger is a really big problem," said Jay White, an Iraq veteran and counselor at the Hartford Vet Center in Rocky Hill. It's one aftermath of the "high-octane environment" veterans experience in war, he said.According to the Connecticut Department of Veterans Affairs, 16,500 state residents have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan since the 9/11 terrorist attacks. That number includes soldiers in the Connecticut Guard, the reserves and active duty personnel. The high number of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with post-traumatic stress disorder presents a large challenge for the criminal justice system. And given that President Barack Obama last week authorized an additional 17,000 troops to go to Afghanistan this year, the number of people who could eventually experience PTSD is likely to increase.PTSD, triggered by an event or events so extreme that they cause trauma, can shatter a soldier's sense of safety and trust and cause a constellation of reactions, in addition to anger.
  • Tom Berger, former chairman of the PTSD committee of the Maryland-based Vietnam Veterans of America, said post-traumatic stress can easily manifest itself in criminal behavior. "It interferes with your thinking process. You have high anxiety. You do strange things like taking U-turns, or carrying loaded weapons in your car," said Berger, who has worked to change the criminal justice system for veterans. James Campbell's experience may typify that of many veterans. The 28-year-old Middletown resident now works as a veterans' employment representative for the state Department of Veterans Affairs. He said he returned home in a hyper-vigilant, ready-for-battle state of mind. Road rage and driving drunk were problems."When I got back, I felt I was indestructible, especially when I was drinking. I didn't care whether I would get into a car and drive drunk," he said. Berger said jail diversion programs should include treatment and recovery and a mentoring component. He said some Vietnam veterans incarcerated when they returned home from war remain in jail. Jim Tackett, director of veterans' services for the state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, said the state's jail diversion program will work closely with mental health officials, the veterans administration and the criminal justice system to identify veterans who need help. "Some veterans who commit minor crimes that are the direct result of traumatic wartime experiences need treatment, not incarceration," Tackett said.
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    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.
CannaCenters Marijuana Medicine Evaluation Center

Who Says Smoking Pot is Illegal? - 2 views

The Institute of Medicine reported this week that an estimated 116 million Americans suffer with chronic pain and are dealing with a health care system that is poorly prepared to treat them. Chroni...

high times

Ilona Meagher

Baltimore Sun | Agent accused of murder says it was an accident - 0 views

  • The 36-year-old is a federal agent and Iraq War veteran, and supervisors in the Department of Veterans Affairs appeared at his bail review hearing this month after he was charged with killing his brother in the early-morning hours of April 4. A performance officer in President Barack Obama's administration wrote a letter to the court affirming Warren's good works in the community and importance in matters of national security. But police -- and on Friday, a city grand jury -- accused Warren of deliberately killing Curtis A. Pounds. Warren's defense attorney, J. Wyndall Gordon, says the case is a simple yet tragic mistake: Warren was fearful of people breaking into one of his Northeast Baltimore homes and slept with his service weapon nearby. When a prowler broke in at 4 a.m. April 5, Warren fired at the figure in the darkness, Gordon said. When he flipped on the light, Gordon said, Warren made a grisly discovery: It was his brother.
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    Curtis Warren
Ilona Meagher

DefenseLink News Article (June 9, 1999): New Programs Aim to Reduce Combat Stress, Prev... - 0 views

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    WASHINGTON, June 9, 1999 - President Clinton and DoD announced June 7 two new Defense Department initiatives aimed at improving the mental health of service members. The first, called the "combat stress control" program, seeks to help identify and manage stress during deployments before it adversely impacts service members' coping skills and effectiveness. The second initiative, aimed at suicide prevention, will take the existing Air Force suicide prevention pilot program and expand it throughout DoD by the end of this year. The Air Force program has been particularly successful, achieving a 50 percent reduction in suicides in only three years. The president announced the initiatives in conjunction with the first-ever White House Conference on Mental Health, held June 7 at Washington's Howard University and chaired by Tipper Gore, wife of Vice President Al Gore. The president and Mrs. Clinton also participated in the all-day conference aimed at reducing the stigma associated with mental health disease and treatment and improving care throughout the nation.
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