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The U.S. military is retracting a claim made to “60 Minutes” that Guantánamo guards suffer nearly twice as much Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder as combat troops. “There are no statistics that support the claim of twice the number of troops diagnosed with PTSD,” said Army Col. Greg Julian of the U. S. Southern Command in response to a query from the Miami Herald. Southcom has oversight of the 12-year-old detention center, including the consequences of duty there on the thousands of troops that have guarded the Guantánamo prisoners. At its height, the prison held about 660 men at the sprawling detention...

In economics, the first lesson I teach my pupils is the lesson of things that are seen and things that are not seen. Actions produce some effects that are readily apparent and others that are not. This truth applies to military veterans. Many return from their service scarred. Sometimes those scars are visible, as in the case of Ronny Porta, about whom I wrote last spring, or the Vietnam vet with whom I shared a poignant experience many Veterans Days ago. Other times, the scars are invisible. The psychological wounds may be more common. A close friend and a cousin...

Some say it's not an opiate painkiller like Oxy, but Klonopin. And doctors are doling it out like candy, causing a surge of hellish withdrawals, overdoses and deaths.You could argue that the most dangerous “drug” in the world is the venom from a jellyfish known as the Sea Wasp, whose sting can kill a human being in four minutes—up to 100 humans at a time. Potassium chloride, which is used to trigger cardiac arrest and death in the 38 states of the U.S. that enforce the death penalty is also pretty deadly . But when it comes to prescription drugs...

Dream Theater's new self-titled album on Roadrunner Records arrives tomorrow (Sept. 24), and to celebrate Billboard is hosting the exclusive U.S. premiere of the video for the song "The Enemy Inside." The clip, which was directed by Bill Fishman (the Ramones, Steve Ray Vaughan), marks the first time in a long while that Dream Theater has created a strictly conceptual video to illustrate one of its songs. Instead of seeing the band, viewers will witness the torment of a soldier who's struggling with reintegrating into his life back home due to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). http://youtu.be/kivbHHazxFQ Guitarist John Petrucci says...

The massive repository of genetic material is poised to advance research—just don’t bother asking for your samples back Inside DoDSR Image: Dina Fine Maron SILVER SPRING, Md.—Nestled inside a generic-looking office building here in suburban Maryland, down the hall from cable-provider Comcast, sits the largest blood serum repository in the world. Seven freezers, each roughly the size of a high school basketball court, are stacked high with row upon row of small cardboard boxes containing tubes of yellow or pinkish blood serum, a liquid rich in antibodies and proteins, but devoid of cells. The freezers hover at –30 degrees Celsius—cold...

Despite his self-proclaimed history of mental instability and post-traumatic stress, one-time congressional candidate and perennial activist Adam Kokesh is organizing a pro-gun rally in which marchers will walk with loaded rifles into Washington from Virginia. “This is now a call for mass civil disobedience on July 4th anywhere in Washington, D.C.,” Kokesh wrote on the event’s Facebook page. “We will march with rifles loaded & slung across our backs to put the government on notice that we will not be intimidated & cower in submission to tyranny.” Kokesh, who served as a Marine artillery officer and reservist, attended Claremont McKenna...

In last article I wrote about surviving combat and how I experienced it during my year in war. Today I write about the aftermath. Survival is not only hard on your body but can also kill you inside. So you survive but you are just empty shell. You all heard of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) but I call this just being dead inside. But this does not have to be like that. First let me tell you about Alek. I know Alek for many years now, I met him during one hiking trip I did with my survival group...

The flip of a single molecular switch helps create the mature neuronal connections that allow the brain to bridge the gap between adolescent impressionability and adult stability. Now Yale School of Medicine researchers have reversed the process, recreating a youthful brain that facilitated both learning and healing in the adult mouse. Scientists have long known that the young and old brains are very different. Adolescent brains are more malleable or plastic, which allows them to learn languages more quickly than adults and speeds recovery from brain injuries. The comparative rigidity of the adult brain results in part from the function...

The federal Department of Veterans Affairs says it won’t follow a provision of New York’s gun law which would require them to report the names of patients they believe may be a danger to themselves or others. …

At a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting on Thursday, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California) opposed an amendment to her Assault Weapons Ban legislation that would allow military veterans to continue to buy the firearms that would be banned. Feinstein says a veteran may be mentally ill and should be prevented from purchasing firearms.

At a Senate judiciary committee hearing on Thursday, California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein shot down a proposed amendment exempting veterans from her “assault weapons” ban, bizarrely arguing that it’s legal to hunt humans with high-capacity magazines. “The time has come, America, to step up and ban these weapons,” Feinstein said. “The other very important part of this bill is to ban large capacity ammunition feeding devices — those that hold more than 10 rounds. We have federal regulations and state laws that prohibit hunting ducks with more than three rounds. And yet it’s legal to hunt humans with 15-round, 30-round,...

Guns: Veterans who bore arms to defend their country are receiving letters that they may be declared mentally incompetent and have their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms stripped from them. Welcome home. The contempt by the Obama administration for our Constitution and our rights has reached a new low with news the Veterans Administration has begun sending letters to veterans telling them they will be declared mentally incompetent and stripped of the Second Amendment rights unless they can prove to unnamed bureaucrats to the contrary. On Thursday, Michael Connelly, executive director of the United States Justice Foundation,...

How would you feel if you received a letter from the U.S. Government informing you that because of a physical or mental condition that the government says you have it is proposing to rule that you are incompetent to handle your own financial affairs? What if that letter also stated: “A determination of incompetency will prohibit you from purchasing, possessing, receiving, or transporting a firearm or ammunition. If you knowingly violate any of these prohibitions, you may be fined, imprisoned, or both pursuant to the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, Pub.L.No. 103-159, as implemented at 18, United States Code 924(a)(2).”?...

Jeff and Paige McDonald and their youngest daughter Brooke stood on the stage of the giant Barrett-Jackson auction in January, watching as bidding began on a custom 1969 Ford Bronco. Funds raised by the auction would help the Armed Forces Foundation, a group that provides services to veterans, particularly those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Paige McDonald recalls the moment as “bittersweet.” She says she was pleased that so many were showing such strong support for America’s veterans. But she says she couldn’t stop thinking of the reason her family had come to Scottsdale, Ariz., for the auction: her...

It’s a little-known fact that about 30% of returning soldiers are diagnosed with PTSD. These brave men and women, mentally scarred from their service to our country, deserve nothing less than our unwavering support. Instead, they are now in the crosshairs of the gun control lobby. With the VA’s existing massive information sharing with NICS, we already have a precedent for large-scale revocation of veteran’s rights. All it takes is for one of Eric Holder’s decrees to include PTSD, and suddenly one of the most passionate, patriotic segments of Americans will be labeled a danger to society. Ask yourself: Do...

MEXICO CITY — As a U.S. Marine, Jon Hammar endured nightmarish tension patrolling the war-ravaged streets of Iraq’s Fallujah. When he came home, the brutality of war still pinging around his brain, mental peace proved elusive. Surfing provided the only respite. “The only time Hammar is not losing his mind is when he’s on the water,” said a fellow Marine veteran, Ian McDonough. snip--- But Mexican prosecutors who looked at the disassembled relic in the 1972 Winnebago motor home dismissed the U.S. registration papers Hammar had filled out. They charged him with a serious crime: possession of a weapon restricted...

CALLAWAY — Libby Busbee pounded on the window of her son’s maroon Dodge Charger as he sat in the driveway of their home earlier this year. Locked inside his car, U.S. Army Spc. William Busbee sat with a .45-caliber gun pointed to the side of his head. “Look at me,” his mother cried out as she tried to get her son’s attention. “Look at me.” He wouldn’t look. He stared out the front windshield, distant, Busbee said, relating the story from an apartment complex in Callaway. “I kept yelling, ‘Don’t you do this. Don’t do it.’ He wouldn’t turn his...

Thanks to my fellow veterans: I remember the day I found out I got into West Point. My mom actually showed up in the hallway of my high school and waited for me to get out of class. She was bawling her eyes out and apologizing that she had opened up my admission letter. She wasn't crying because it had been her dream for me to go there. She was crying because she knew how hard I'd worked to get in, how much I wanted to attend, and how much I wanted to be an infantry officer. I was going...

I have received the letter below a couple times now, and checking with Snoops they can only dispute it to the extent it originated with Nick Palmisciano co-owner and co-founder of Ranger Up and not General David Petraeus. The Army was excited enough about Palmisciano’s work that they published it on their Facebook. I verified the substance of its truthfulness as you can do also by looking at the links I checked. The article points out the severe disconnect now existing between veterans and the general citizenry. At the end of World War II, when 11 out of every 100...

We appreciate all that you veterans have done to help us remain America. If anyone needs any free assistance with being free of stress and or, ptsd....please go to www.copingstrategies.com! For all vets!