The news just keeps on coming.

This time, Newsweek reported that between 500 and 1,000 OEF/OIF veterans are homeless and that "[military] families [are] sliding into debt as VA case managers study disability claims over many months, and the seriously wounded [require] help from outside experts just to understand the VA's arcane system..."

Last week it was the Washington Post. In December it was NPR. And at various times last year it was the Hartford Courant, the San Diego Union Tribune, The Oregonian or the Colorado Springs Independent.

Each delivered exceptional news coverage. Here's some of their best, along with an invitation to be the first to read the opening installment of a new series on combat PTSD appearing this morning on General Wesley Clark's Clark Community Network blog, Society and the Soldier.

My coverage of the 2006 YearlyKos Convention will arrive in four parts, each highlighting the words and experiences of the four panelists expertly representing the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA). Part I offers a general introduction to The View from the Ground: Iraq Veterans on the War and Returning Home discussion, then moves into presenting the story of Iraq veteran Abbie Pickett - whose continued desire to educate the American public about Iraq and PTSD have caught the attention of many news organizations. Check out her Newsweek profile and interview on NPR's Day to Day program. I consider myself lucky to have had a few moments to chat with her this past weekend.

I was contacted today by Sarah Farmer, the fiance of Sgt. Jeffrey M. Lehner, an Afghanistan veteran who (exactly six months ago today) tragically killed his father and then himself. At the time, he'd completed 2 years of counseling for his combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder. From my research of such OEF/OIF incidents for the PTSD Timeline (Lehner's is located at 12-7-05), I remember this case quite vividly.

From the tragedy, now comes hope for others returning home with PTSD through the help of The Lehner Foundation. Learn a little more about Jeffrey, his difficulties with PTSD, and what one woman is doing to make sure our returning troops get the help they need.

From the Fresno [CA] Bee:

Felony charges were filed Friday against a Marine accused of stealing a truck and crashing it into a Hanford house -- acts he blames on stress from seeing his best friend die in combat and having to move the bodies of children in Haditha, Iraq. Lance Cpl. Roel Ryan Briones, 21, is charged with auto theft, hit and run and drunken driving in connection with the April 3 crash of a pickup into a Hanford home.

Not surprisingly, we find the first reported case of posttraumatic stress disorder [PTSD] related to involvement in the tragedy at Haditha. Military officials at Camp Pendleton have confirmed that Briones -- who took no part in the alleged killing of civilians -- has PTSD; he has been receiving counseling from a psychologist for his condition in San Diego. The Purple Heart veteran was drunk at the time he stole this vehicle, crashing it into a residential home a mere 36 hours after returning home from Iraq.

Much more on this incident, as well as an expanded look on how Haditha affected two Marines ordered to photograph and handle the civilian casualities.

A number of weeks back, I was contacted by Penny Coleman. She's the author of the thoroughly provocative and deeply researched work, Flashback: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Suicide, and the Lessons of War. (Read her Memorial Day thoughts here.)

I'd personally like to dedicate this Memorial Day to those who've worn the uniform, served in combat, yet go unrecognized on our KIA lists or memorial walls at their death. Penny Coleman's late husband, Daniel O'Donnell, became one such casualty of the Vietnam War when he took his life after battling something later referred to as posttraumatic stress disorder [PTSD].

As she says in her book, "The overwhelming evidence proves beyond a doubt that war is a disease that kills and maims, not just by tearing apart soldiers' bodies, but also by ravaging their minds. In every war American soldiers have fought in the past century, the chances of becoming a psychiatric casualty were greater than the chances of being killed by enemy fire." (emphasis mine)

Today, I remember these fallen casualties of war...

This was posted today at Kos, dealing with PTSD and how DOD, the VA and Congress is failing in their obligation to care for the active duty service members and veterans they are creating in the new WW3 as dumya calls it  the rest of us call it PNAC's war.

The Iraq War PTSD Epidemic

The Bush White House and the Rubber-Stamp GOP-controlled Congress have launched so many assaults against the American people that I have lost count. But perhaps the most offensive of these assaults are against the military, military families and veterans.  President Bush saw fit to send our soldiers into an unnecessary war, using misleading intelligence. He then refused to properly protect the them in battle, provide the necessary medical care when they were redeployed homeward, and finally denied them and their families the financial security they have earned fighting for our nation.

What a week. Actually, what a past few months.

There's been a bit of a backstory going on with the fight for the mental healthcare of our troops. I'm not just talking now about the mental care they receive as vets after they return home -- we're talking now about the actual healthcare decisions the DOD is making for our troops on the battlefield.

This week's first strike was the GAO Report [pdf] stating that only 22% (1 out of 5) troops who are at risk for developing combat PTSD -- as determined via a mental health screening form, the PDHA [pdf], administered by the DOD -- are referred for further mental health evaluations. The DOD then released its response following the less-than-flattering media's coverage of the report stating:

"The level of our effort and our outreach is unprecedented," he said. "We have broken new ground."

New ground, indeed. Stunning, unbelievable new ground. Get your steel toe shoes on, folks, and follow me for the full story on what the DOD dustup is all about...

There is a major issue affecting today's service members and of veterans of wars recently fought and wars of our past. PTSD, or Post Traumatic Stress disorder as it is known in the DSM-IV, the pyschiactric bible. This is not a subject you will see a lot of major news coverage on, as it is one of the naked ugly truths of war and other traumatic events, People other than veterans have it, war is not the only cause.

The survivors of the WTC and of New York City attacks of 9/11 have a high rate of diagnosis, the Federal Building on Oklahoma City, etc you see the things that can cause, even car accidents, physical attacks, rapes etc. It affects people from all nations, all ethnicities, but soldiers and other service men are more prone to it, than others, due to the images and events they are exposed to in service to this nation.

As a nation we owe these men and women the best care that we can provide them, not the worst, as is being done now. The GAO report issued this week shows that, it shows that DOD is not treating 78% of the people possibly affected by PTSD symptoms, they are just ignoring it.

I've been out of it a bit since having the flu last week; have I woken up from its haze in an alternate universe or something?

Tom DeLay shuts his campaign down, Chris Matthews covers posttraumatic stress disorder [PTSD] on Hardball, and FOX News delivers a great piece of reporting on PTSD -- currently the featured story on their Politics page. As if that weren't enough, FOX News cites and links back to my PTSD Combat blog (taking notes AP?) and the PTSD Timeline at ePluribus Media.

I want to thank reporter Kelley Beaucar Vlahos for her efforts in presenting PTSD to the FOX News audience. She wrote a solid piece any veterans health advocate should be glad to be associated with. And she eased my worries (this was the first time I was approached for an interview on the subject). Now, I can't say my experience with FOX News is anything at all like the deserved crush John Gibson has on Maryscott O'Connor; but, I'm really happy to see that every now and again FOX News surprises us.

More below the fold...

The 3rd anniversary of the Iraq invasion finds an interesting situation brewing: returning veterans coping with posttraumatic stress disorder [PTSD] are no longer being hidden away from our view. Rather, the media is beginning ever-so-slightly to lift the veil on this nerve disorder affecting at least 16,000+ of our troops who've served in Afghanistan and/or Iraq.

Since we have so very little else to celebrate as another year moves forward with no end in sight to war and its victims, I'm going to focus on the good reporting on this issue that is finally, finally, seeing the light of day. And I celebrate the fact today that rather than using this anniversary to glamorize and glorify the war, the media seem to have decided to use it to introduce this balooning problem at last to the public. This give me soooo much hope...

Things are not all right at home.

Grandmothers enlisting, fathers speaking out. Mothers arrested while a Vietnam veteran (a minister, no less) chooses death over the pain of another war.

Fathers killed, children abused and dying -- too many dying. Wives murdered, wives strangled, wives drowned, wives stabbed. And strangled again. Ex-wives and their boyfriends shot. Friends slain. War buddies murdered. Cousins shooting cousins over and over, sons overeating, and banks robbed all to keep from having to return to Iraq. Others going AWOL after returning home. Desertion.

We are failing our military families. And we are failing each other. Do you have the courage to see but a sliver of the grand tragedy that is befalling our nation?

What a stunning span of days the past week and half has been for the exploration of combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder [PTSD]. A veritable `perfect storm' of events lined up to push the plight of our returning veterans squarely into the forefront of national debate and discussion. The increased visibility is definitely welcomed, and long overdue.

We all have a role to play, and I think our efforts are beginning to pay off. If you happened to have missed out on any of the positive PTSD news events of this week, follow me for a brief run down...

Another inspiring (yet frustrating) local story has hit the wires this afternoon.

We can add it to the fine job local media outlets are doing covering the PTSD issue (as compared to their bigger budget brothers). And we can also file it under the anemic quantifiable support that our veterans seem to be getting from our government after they return from war.

More below the fold...

Well, the latest PTSD incident (which occurred this past Thursday) has been added to the PTSD Timeline project housed at ePluribus Media.

Allow me to introduce you to a 20-year old Army private based out of Fort Hood, TX. His name is Jacob Hounshell. His story will be viewable in the PTSD Timeline tomorrow (it's currently being fact-checked). If the past is any indication, the national media won't spend too much time telling you about the tailspin this young man's life has taken ever since he returned home from a year's deployment in Iraq. No one wants to hear those ugly details do they?

Well, I would like you to meet him. Read his story, learn more about post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD] at my new blog, and then follow me below the fold to see the breakdown of the 69 other incidents now making preparations for this young soldier to join them...

To head off any confusion, the question I'm proffering here is: Is PTSD as radioactive to the Bush administration as AIDS was to Reagan's? I'm not comparing the two illnesses with one another.

Since Vice President Dick Cheney is currently the big buzz in news these days, I thought I'd be clever and come up with a post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD] angle to the story.

As I began my search for that PTSD angle, I found Cheney to be as accommodating to me as he was to the local Texas authorities last weekend. It seems our Vice President, who proclaims to support our troops, has apparently never gone on record uttering the term `post-traumatic stress disorder.'

Even though it is now reported that 40,000 troops have returned from combat showing symptoms of mental health disorder, Cheney's made absolutely no acknowledgement of the problem in any of his speeches or remarks. As a matter of fact, neither has our President:

The Reagan administration also had a problem uttering another deadly acronym: AIDS. Isn't it ugly how our leaders try to banish what they don't want to acknowledge? It's also very dangerous...