OIF
War in Iraq will be called ‘Operation New Dawn’ to reflect reduced U.S. role
Feb 19th
By Greg Jaffe–Washington Post–
The Obama administration has decided to give the war in Iraq a new name — “Operation New Dawn” — to reflect the reduced role U.S. troops will play in securing the country this year as troop levels fall, according to a memo from Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates.
Since U.S. forces charged across the Kuwaiti border toward Baghdad in 2003, the war has been known as Operation Iraqi Freedom. The new name is scheduled to take effect in September, when U.S. troop levels are supposed to drop to about 50,000.
Popularity: 18% [?]
Michelle Obama announces more funding for military families in FY 2011 budget
Jan 27th
By Robin Givhan–Washington Post–
First lady Michelle Obama, on Tuesday afternoon, delivered a promise of more federal money dedicated to supporting military families — the first tangible results of her many visits to bases and hospitals, as well as conversations with veterans and their loved ones in 2009.
In a 20-minute speech to the Joint Armed Forces Officers’ Wives’ Luncheon at Bolling Air Force Base, Obama announced a 3 percent increase in funding over the 2010 fiscal year budget. That bump-up in dollars would bring spending on military support — from child-care services and improved housing to spousal-education programs — to $8.8 billion.
“These are all major investments,” Obama said in her speech. “They are the result of military families speaking up and being heard. And they are part of a larger ongoing commitment to care for our troops and their families even after the fighting ends.”
Even before Obama became first lady, she emphasized her concern for military families and the stresses placed on them as the country fights two wars. She spent part of last year reaching out to servicemen and women and their families through private conversations and public events. She thanked them for their dedication before she and vice-presidential spouse Jill Biden attended the opening game of the World Series. And she honored their history when she hosted a tea for military women at the White House. Mostly, however, Obama was on a listening tour.
Popularity: 11% [?]
Morphine found to help stave off PTSD in wounded troops
Jan 15th
By David Brown–Washington Post–
More than 200 years after it was isolated from poppies, morphine remains one of medicine’s best painkillers. But that isn’t its only use.
Physicians sometimes include the drug in a cocktail of medications given to people having heart attacks. It can relieve the breathlessness of pulmonary edema. It decreases diarrhea. A famous physician of the early 20th century, William Osler, once called morphine “God’s own medicine.”
Research published this week suggests that the compound might have at least one more use.
In a study of about 700 troops who were wounded in Iraq, those who received morphine soon after being injured were about half as likely to develop post-traumatic stress disorder as those who did not get the drug.
It is not known whether morphine’s apparently protective effect arises directly from the relief of traumatic pain or indirectly by blocking the brain circuits that lay down traumatic memory.
The researchers and outside experts agreed that the effect would have to be proved virtually beyond a doubt before morphine would be routinely given to prevent the mental disorder.
“I would be very reluctant to suggest any change in clinical practice,” said Troy Lisa Holbrook of the Naval Health Research Center in San Diego, who headed the study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. “We need to understand a great deal more how this appears to work.”
Morphine has been used for pain relief from battle wounds as far back as the Civil War. Since World War II, medics and hospital corpsmen have carried small injectors filled with the drug.
Popularity: 12% [?]
Marine Corps Video for Returning Troops and Families
Oct 23rd
Worlds Apart from Brent Altomare on Vimeo.
Video targets Marine reservists who often feel out of place back home
SAN DIEGO — In an unusually direct way, the Marine Corps is warning reservists and their families about the alienation and psychological pain that Marines can feel when returning to civilian life after duty in a war zone.
A video titled “Worlds Apart” made by a San Diego production company warns that even well-meaning civilians cannot be expected to understand what it is like to serve in Iraq or Afghanistan. Read the rest of this entry »
Popularity: 8% [?]
Iraqi Veteran Unanimously Nominated for Prominent Position Amongst Peers.
Oct 14th
To know Matthew Stuart, is to know a humble young Utah family man bent on making positive
change for the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
This past weekend Commander Stuart was elected by the VFW’s incoming Department Junior–Vice Commanders to be their Class Officer. With 54 Department Junior-Vice Commanders (One for every state, Puerto Rico, Europe, etc.) the posting represents his peers clear belief that Commander Stuart is a leader for the future—the vote was unanimous.
Typically, in VFW leadership this position rotates to the State Commander in two years, which would make Matthew Stuart, in 2011, the first Veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom to become a Department Commander.
Commander Stuart said, “I am looking forward to rolling out an ambitious agenda that will build bridges between all conflicts of veterans, while looking to craft the VFW of the future. I know my fellow Commanders want to do something for younger veterans and I am looking forward to working with them.” He also said, “I would hope other Iraqi Veterans see that we can have a stake in the VFW’s decisions but only if we partake. Too many other veterans are getting distracted by mirage groups that pass themselves off as groups but are really only individuals with followers. Come, join the elite, and lead from the front—an email membership with youtube and flashy sit in your office participation isn’t going to get it done for us,” said Stuart. “We young veterans need community oriented organization, if we just become a New York based website operated by mostly non-veterans and dictated by one talking head we war veterans have lost a proud tradition,” Stuart stated.
However, Commander Stuart was adamant these groups success were due to traditional veterans’ group’s failure to close the generational gap, “The war for the hearts and minds of my generation of veteran is taking place in cyberspace. The VFW is losing this war because we are failing to make necessary changes and most of them cost very little. I hope to change this.” Stuart said.
Commander Stuart will likely hold the post for the next three years as his class rotates through the VFW’s Department chairs.
Popularity: 47% [?]
Success Against al-Qaeda Cited
Sep 30th
Infiltration of Network Is a Factor as Administration Debates Afghanistan Policy
By Karen DeYoung and Walter Pincus–Washington Post–
U.S. and international intelligence officials say that improved recruitment of spies inside the al-Qaeda network, along with increased use of targeted airstrikes and enhanced assistance from cooperative governments, has significantly reduced the terrorist organization’s effectiveness.
A U.S. counterterrorism official said that the combined advances have led to the deaths of more than a dozen senior figures in al-Qaeda and allied groups in Pakistan and elsewhere over the past year, most of them in 2009. Officials described Osama bin Laden and his main lieutenants as isolated and unable to coordinate high-profile attacks.
Recent claims of significant success against al-Qaeda have become part of White House deliberations about U.S. strategy in Afghanistan, centering on a request by Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top American and NATO commander there, for an expanded counterinsurgency campaign that will require more U.S. troops. Discussions began in earnest Tuesday as senior national security and military officials met with President Obama.
Those within the administration who have suggested limiting large-scale U.S. ground combat in Afghanistan, including Vice President Biden, have pointed to an improved counterterrorism effort as evidence that Obama’s principal objective — destroying al-Qaeda — can be achieved without an expanded troop presence.
Popularity: 16% [?]
Joint Chiefs chairman seeks brain-injury limit
Sep 29th
By Gregg Zoroya–USA Today–
WASHINGTON — U.S. servicemembers who suffer up to three mild traumatic brain injuries or
concussions during a deployment — typically from roadside bombs — could be pulled out of combat for the duration of their tour, according to a policy being pushed by Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.Mullen has spoken out more in the last year about the risks of mild TBI caused by roadside bombs, often invoking a story of a young soldier who endured 30 blasts and is now suffering significant brain damage.
“I don’t know what the right number is, but 30 is way too many. I’m literally on the verge of saying, you know, ‘Hey, it’s two or it’s three (mild TBIs) and you’re out,’ ” Mullen told an audience at Harvard University Medical School last month.
The military estimates the cost of Mullen’s initiative — in troops removed from combat — may be minimal, with only about 1% to 2% of the 15,000 to 20,000 U.S. servicemembers in Afghanistan routinely exposed to roadside bombs sidelined during a period of several months, or about 150 to 400 people, says Army Col. Chris Macedonia, Mullen’s medical science adviser.
Popularity: 17% [?]
Go All-In, Or Fold
Sep 27th
In Afghanistan, Splitting the Difference May Be Obama’s Most Dangerous Choice
By Rajiv Chandrasekaran–Washington Post–
KANDAHAR AIR FIELD, Afghanistan
Sitting in an air-conditioned office within this gargantuan NATO encampment in southern Afghanistan, a U.S. officer pointed to a map of Kandahar province that indicated, with small, rectangular boxes, where soldiers deployed by President Obama earlier this year were now operating.
There were two battalions to the north of Kandahar city. Another to the far south. Canadian forces were going to swing to the west. About 5,000 new U.S. troops in all.
“But there, there and there,” the officer said, pointing to towns just outside a belt where the Americans and Canadians were stationed, “and there,” putting his fist on the city, which with 800,000 residents is the country’s second-largest population center, “we don’t have anyone.”
If more forces are not forthcoming to mount counterinsurgency operations in those parts of the province, he concluded, the overall U.S. effort to stabilize Kandahar — and by extension, the rest of Afghanistan — will fail.
“We might as well pack our bags and go home . . . and just keep a few Predators flying overhead to whack the al-Qaeda guys who return,” he said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. “There’s no point in doing half-measures here.”
As Obama and senior members of his national security team plot the way forward in Afghanistan following Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal’s assessment, and in anticipation of the general’s expected request for as many as 40,000 additional troops for the war, the starkest choices may be the president’s best options. The most dangerous course, according to some military strategists and diplomats in Afghanistan, is what Obama often gravitates toward: the middle ground.
McChrystal’s 66-page confidential assessment makes the case for a far more expansive counterinsurgency mission, one that would involve sending more troops and civilian reconstruction personnel to Kandahar and other key population centers to improve security, governance and economic opportunities for Afghans. Although the general never used the term in the assessment, his strategy amounts to a comprehensive nation-building endeavor.
Popularity: 28% [?]
VA IG says suicide prevention programs implemented
Sep 24th
WASHINGTON – The Veterans Affairs Department appears to have stepped up its suicide prevention efforts.
The agency’s inspector took a look at 24 facilities and found they generally met new requirements like appointing suicide prevention coordinators to track high-risk veterans, according to a report released Tuesday.
It did say the coordinators and medical providers could do a better job of collaborating with each other. In a letter in response to the IG, a VA official said this fall, the agency would begin using a new system of tracking communication between the suicide prevention coordinators and medical providers.
The VA estimates there are as many as 6,400 suicides annually among all veterans.
New policies were implemented after growing concern about the number of suicides among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. Among the suicides was the 2004 death of Jeffrey Lucey, a 23-year-old former Marine corporal, who hanged himself in his parents’ home two weeks after the Northampton Veterans Medical Center in Leeds, Mass., released him.
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On the Net:
IG’s report: http://www.va.gov/oig/54/reports/VAOIG-09-00326-223.pdf
Popularity: 12% [?]
