"Rose Covered Glasses" is a serious essay, satire and photo-poetry commentary from a group of US Military Veterans in Minnesota.
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"Despite
more than a decade’s worth of effort to prevent suicides among
service members, the numbers continue to rise, including a 16-percent
jump during 2020.
To
get a better idea of the scope of the issue, Congress mandated an
independent review commission in the 2022 National Defense
Authorization Act and, on Tuesday, the Pentagon announced it would
begin getting it off the ground."
“It
is imperative that we take care of all our teammates and continue to
reinforce that mental health and suicide prevention remain a key
priority,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin wrote in a
memo signed Tuesday.
“One death by suicide is one too many. And suicide rates among our
Service members are still too high. So, clearly we have more work.
The
commission will study suicide prevention and behavioral health
programs across the services, including site visits, focus groups,
interviews and a confidential survey of troops at every location
visited, much in the same way an independent
review commission on sexual assault went
about its mandate last year.
“He’s
seen enough to know that we we’ve got to do something different,
that we’ve got to try to take additional and more creative action
here,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said of the secretary’s
concerns.
The
first nine bases on the list are:
Joint
Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska
Fort
Wainright, Alaska
Eielson
Air Force Base, Alaska
Fort
Campbell, Kentucky
Camp
Lejeune, North Carolina
Nellis
Air Force Base, Nevada
Naval
Air Station North Island, California
Camp
Humphreys, South Korea
North
Carolina National Guard
Alaska
has made headlines in recent years with its disproportionate suicide
rate among service members. U.S.
Army Alaska alone
confirmed in December that it had seen 10 confirmed suicides in 2021,
with several more deaths still under investigation.
Austin
“spent a lot of time when he went out to Fairbanks, talking with
troops and commanders about the challenges there with respect to
mental health and suicide,” Kirby said of the secretary’s trip to
Alaska last summer.
The
other installations were chosen in consultation with leaders, Kirby
said.
Alaska
has made headlines in recent years with its disproportionate suicide
rate among service members. U.S.
Army Alaska alone
confirmed in December that it had seen 10 confirmed suicides in 2021,
with several more deaths still under investigation.
Austin
“spent a lot of time when he went out to Fairbanks, talking with
troops and commanders about the challenges there with respect to
mental health and suicide,” Kirby said of the secretary’s trip to
Alaska last summer.
The
other installations were chosen in consultation with leaders, Kirby
said.
“So,
I mean, it was a team effort to come up with this list,” he said.
“And … it’s the initial list of installations. It doesn’t
necessarily have to be the end all list here.”
Despite
more access to behavioral health resources than ever before, some
service members still struggle to push through their concerns about
seeking treatment, while others experience long waits to access care
on their bases.
I think
the secretary believes that one problem that we have to get after is
the stigma of seeking help for mental health problems, which is still
a problem in the military,” Kirby said. Many service members still
have the impression that seeking mental health treatment will
negatively affect their military careers, from favorable assignments
to deployments to promotion chances.
One
specific measure Austin is interested in is firearms storage, Kirby
said.
More
than 60 percent of military suicides are carried out with a
personally owned firearm, according to DoD data. Research
on suicide has shown that the decision to end one’s life
is largely an impulsive one, and that even having to remove a weapon
from a locked safe can give someone enough time to reconsider.
“And
one of the things that he wants to do is is is work with commanders
on storage of the firearms in the home or on base and make sure we’ve
got that,” Kirby said.
The department has 60 days to tap members of the commission, according to the memo. After that, site visits will begin no later than Aug. 1, with an initial report due to Austin by Dec. 20. Congress will receive the findings by Feb. 18."
If you or a loved one is experiencing thoughts of self-harm or suicide, you can confidentially seek assistance via the Military/Veterans Crisis Line at 800-273-8255, via text at 838255 or chat at http://VeteransCrisisLine.net."
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Meghann Myers is the Pentagon bureau chief at Military Times. She covers operations, policy, personnel, leadership and other issues affecting service members. Follow on Twitter @Meghann_MT
After a careful review by the Intelligence Community for Publication, Drone Warrior has performed a stunning service, giving the reader a gut level feel for U.S. War from a decorated soldier's perspective.
Those of us who served in Vietnam and similar conflicts since can totally relate to this masterpiece of honesty.
Brett Velicovich pulls no punches. The mental stress, teamwork, tragedy and after effects in this modern, technological killing process can be felt with every line. The impact on the man himself and on those with whom he worked has not been spared in its detail and its effects.
Having left the service, Brett is now involved in harnessing and controlling the technology for peaceful purposes like wildlife preservation and management. Those of us who have made similar transitions applaud, commend and recommend the book and the man.
Read it to become informed and consider the billions we are spending on this warfare today as well as the impact on our youth and our future. Drone Warrior
“Women have dutifully served
their country since the days of the American Revolution. From breaking
barriers in combat to challenging the status quo across eras, here are
eight female soldiers who changed the course of history for the U.S.
military.“
“The
Union Army had pressed Cathay Williams into service as a young girl to
cook and launder clothes for XIII Corps. She grew accustomed to military
life and being on the march, which must have made her later deception
easier. (U.S. Army)
Pvt. Cathay Williams began her journey with the U.S. military in a
support role during the Civil War, forced to serve due to her status as a
captured slave, the National Park Service noted.
After the war, Williams became the first Black woman to enlist when she
joined the Army under a male pseudonym, William Cathay, in 1866, the
Army noted.
“A young, female, unmarried former slave,” Williams joined the Army
without a full medical examination, and she was assigned to the 38th
U.S. Infantry Regiment – which would become part of the famed Buffalo Soldiers, according to the Wounded Warrior Project.
Suffering from smallpox, Williams was discovered to be a woman while
undergoing treatment and honorably discharged in 1868. She continued in
her work as a military cook at Fort Union, New Mexico. Her story was
documented in the St. Louis Daily Times in 1876.
Williams was the first Black woman to enlist in the U.S. Army and the only known female Buffalo Soldier.
Dr. Mary E. Walker
Dr.
Mary Walker was an outspoken advocate for women’s rights, and the first
woman ever awarded the Medal of Honor for her service as a surgeon
during the Civil War. (U.S. National Library of Medicine)
In 1861, 29-year-old Dr. Mary Walker applied to become a surgeon with
the Union Army, as she had been one of the few female physicians in the
country prior to the start of the Civil War. She was rejected but
remained on as a volunteer, leveraging her skills to treat the wounded,
AUSA noted.
Two years later, Walker finally received an appointment to serve an
assistant surgeon in the Army, after spending additional time as a field
surgeon in Virginia, according to an Army story.
In the latter years of the war, Walker was captured by Confederate
forces, held in squalid conditions as a prisoner of war, yet another in a
long line of abuses due to her status as a woman.
She lobbied for women’s causes and for her service during the war, she was awarded the Medal of Honor in
1865. The award was later rescinded in 1917 due to her status as a
civilian, but President Jimmy Carter restored the award in 1977, the
Army noted.
Dr. Mary Walker remains the only woman to have received the Medal of Honor in U.S. history.
Harriet Tubman
The
rechristened and self-liberated Harriet Tubman launched an illustrious
career as a member of the Underground Railroad. Tubman was the “Great
Emancipator,” leading scores of escaping African Americans to freedom,
often all the way to Canada. She built up a network of supporters and
admirers, including William Lloyd Garrison and William Seward, to name
but two who lauded her efforts. (Library of Congress)
Beyond being the legendary “conductor” of the Underground Railroad,
shepherding enslaved persons to freedom, Harriet Tubman also aided the
Union’s military effort in the Civil War. Early in the war, Tubman
served as a nurse for Union regiments before moving on to a larger role
as spymaster and military scout.
Under the direction of War Secretary Edwin Stanton, Tubman recruited
locals throughout conquered areas in the South to pass information along
to Union commanders and assist in assault preparations. Her group’s
work led to a successful assault on Jacksonville, Florida, and the
Combahee River Raid in June 1863, as Military Times previously reported.
Decades later, Tubman finally received recognition — to a degree —
for her military service during the Civil War, as she had been kept out
of official military documents. In 1899, Tubman was granted a pension,
officially validating her widely known contributions to the Union cause.
Mary A. Hallaren
Col. Mary Hallaren became the first official female soldier to join the U.S. Army as Director of the Women’s Army Corps. (AP)
Col. Mary Hallaren became a member of the first training class of the
Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (later, Women’s Army Corps, or WAC) in
1942 before commanding the largest all-female unit to serve overseas. In
1948, while serving as WAC’s director, Hallaren “was instrumental” in
advocating for women to be fully integrated as “permanent regular
members” of the military beyond just wartime, according to the National Women’s Hall of Fame.
Hallaren, who had originally enlisted in the military following the
Pearl Harbor attack, later became the first commissioned officer in the
Regular Army, not a medical role, in 1948, according to the Army’s Center of Military History.
“To me there was no question that women should serve,” Hallaren said, as reported by the New York Times.
Marcella A. Hayes became the first black female to receive aviator
wings in the U.S. Armed Forces in November 1979 when she completed Army
helicopter flight training at the U.S. Army Aviation Center, Fort
Rucker, Alabama. (Army)
Marcella Hayes, who began her military career as an ROTC cadet at the
University of Wisconsin, became the first Black female pilot in the
U.S. military in 1979. She graduated Army Flight School at Fort Rucker,
Alabama, earning her paratrooper badge during her training as a
helicopter pilot, the Army Women’s Foundation reported.
Hayes became the 55th woman to earn her pilot wings, before being
assigned to the 394th Transportation Battalion in Germany, the unit’s
first black soldier and first woman leader. She went on to marry Dennis
Ng, also in the Army, retiring in 2000 as a lieutenant colonel.
Linda Bray
Capt.
Linda L. Bray, 29, from Butner, N.C., with the 988th Military Police
Company from Fort Benning, Ga., poses in the Army’s Quarry Heights base
in Panama City Jan. 3, 1990. She led 30 MPs in an attack on Panamanian
Defense Forces kennels the night of the American invasion, resulting in
intense combat with PDF soldiers and a cache of weapons captured. (AP)
Capt. Linda Bray was one of over 700 women to participate in
Operation Just Cause in Panama in 1989, as she led the 988th Military
Police Company, according to the Army. There, she became the first woman
to command American soldiers in battle, a trailblazing role that
launched a reflection about women in the military.
“I joined the Army for the excitement, the challenge, the experience
and loyalty to my country,” Bray said at the time, according to the New York Times. “I haven’t been let down a day.”
Bray’s role in combat forced the U.S. military to reevaluate their
prohibition on women in the role, which ultimately culminated in an end
to the ban by then-Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta in 2013, the
Seattle Times noted.
Kristen Griest & Shaye Haver
1st
Lt. Shaye Haver, left, and Capt. Kristen Griest talk on the phone Aug.
20 with Defense Secretary Ash Carter, who called to congratulate them on
being the first women to earn the Ranger Tab. (Patrick A.
Albright/Army)
Capt. Kristen M. Griest and 1st Lt. Shaye L. Haver became the first
two women to complete Army Ranger School and earn their Ranger tabs in
2015. Both graduates of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New
York, the two soldiers became the first females of over 77,000 tabbed
soldiers since the Ranger School’s inception in 1950, according to an
Army story.
Griest was a military police platoon leader, and Haver was an AH-64
Apache pilot, who both looked at Ranger School as the highest challenge
to prepare them to lead soldiers.
“The reasons I chose to come were the same as the men here: to get
the experience of the elite leadership school and to give me the
opportunity to lead my Soldiers the best that I can,” Haver told the
Army at the time. “I think if females continue to come to this course,
they can be encouraged by what we have accomplished, but hopefully
they’re encouraged by the legacy that the Ranger community has left.”
Since Griest and Haver shattered this barrier, over 30 female
soldiers have earned Ranger tabs, including enlisted soldiers and
National Guardsmen, Army Times reported.
Ann E. Dunwoody
Army
Lt. Gen. Ann E. Dunwoody was pinned by Chief of Staff of the Army
General George W. Casey, left, and her husband Craig Brotchie during her
promotion ceremony at the Pentagon, making history as the nation’s
first four-star female officer. (Petty Officer 2nd Class Molly A.
Burgess/DoD)
Retired Army Gen. Ann E. Dunwoody became the first woman to
reach a four-star officer rank in the history of the United States
military in 2008. Dunwoody, who led Army Materiel Command before her
retirement in 2012, remained a pioneer throughout her decades-long
service. In 1992, she became the first woman to command a battalion in
the 82nd Airborne Division during the First Gulf War, according to the Purple Heart Foundation.
“I have never considered myself anything but a soldier. I recognize
that with this selection, some will view me as a trailblazer,” Dunwoody said on
her promotion at the time. “But it’s important that we remember the
generations of women, whose dedication, commitment and quality of
service helped open the doors of opportunity for us today.”
Dunwoody was a fourth-generation Army officer, and she released a book on leadership in 2015.”
Veteran and Apprenti graduate Mike Cooper addresses the crowd at the 2018 Amazon Apprenti graduation. Also in attendance (from left to right) was Apprenti Executive DirectorJennifer Carlson, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and Ardine Williams, Amazon’s senior vice president of business operations. (Photo provided by Apprenti
“MILITARY TIMES”
“Many veterans face a frustrating catch-22 upon exiting the military: Most jobs require experience, but it’s almost impossible to get experience without a job.
That’s where a program like Apprenti comes in. It removes the burden of experience and education by immediately placing qualifying veterans in relatively well-paying technology apprenticeships, where they will learn the skills required to succeed in the industry.”
“A lot of those who come to us are not prepared to go back to college for four more years and use their GI Bill that way,” said Jennifer Carlson, executive director of both Apprenti and the Washington Technology Industry Association Workforce Institute, based in the state of Washington.
“They want to go to a job,” she continued. “This is a great transition point with a much more accelerated time investment to a career.”
It’s a simple process: Veterans take a free online assessment that tests them on both basic math abilities and soft skills like leadership qualities and critical thinking. They have two tries to pass it and must wait three months before trying again if they don’t.
Once they pass, the top one-third of candidates will be offered interviews at tech companies including but not limited to industry giants like Microsoft and Amazon. They will stay in this apprenticeship — earning a median salary of $51,000 per year, plus benefits — for a minimum of one year, and if all goes well, they will be offered a permanent job upon graduation.
The program is GI Bill-eligible, so veterans will be able to use the benefit to pay for living expenses. And some of the larger companies Apprenti places candidates in are even willing to help out with university tuition for veterans seeking a more formal education once they are hired on full-time.
According to Carlson, 85 percent of the participants Apprenti places are retained by the company with which they did their apprenticeship. She also said that 46 percent of placements begin the program without a degree of any kind, but they still land jobs with titles like software developer and system administrator.
“These are middle-skills jobs, not entry-level ones like a help desk,” she said. “These are jobs that have natural career progressions, and you’re going to grow with your company.”
These apprenticeships are different from internships, which usually require affiliation with a university, only last about three to five months and tend to be less focused on doing one specific job.
None of that applies to these apprenticeships, which are open to anyone 18-and-over, last at least a year and ensure you receive training in the role in which the company hopes to retain you.
“You are a hire. You are in that job. The company is paying you a training wage, which is where you get to earn and learn,” Carlson said. “Internship is try-before-you-buy, and apprenticeships are train-to-retain.”
A group of Apprenti participants pose in 2017 before they embark on their one-year apprenticeships with Amazon’s web-services division. (Photo provided by Apprenti)
Apprenti has only been around since late 2016, but Carlson said that the number of graduates these companies keep has already grown from a “handful or two” to the hundreds. She expects to place over 450 apprentices in tech jobs around the country in 2019.
Carlson said that 58 percent of Apprenti placements are veterans, many of who are feeling stuck, despite often having professional experience and some education.
“When we look at where competency lies, you have a lot of people who choose to go to second-tier colleges and who are working while in school,” Carlson said. “They have skills, they did the college thing, they just didn’t do STEM. So they have the competency to do the work, but they have no pathway in, short of going back to school and taking on that debt.”
The other part of this equation is the boon to the tech sector, which Carlson described as being severely understaffed across the board. She said that the industry currently has 2 million vacancies, yet only 65,000 students a year are graduating with the necessary computer-science degrees to fill those roles.
Through her experience with the group based in Washington state, Carlson determined that tech companies were reeling both from this labor shortage and a lack of “people who were actually work-ready coming to them, which they didn’t feel many college students were.”
Enter Apprenti.
“Our thesis is that we can find highly competent people, without regard to pedigree,” Carlson said.
So, if you’re a veteran unsure what to do next and are interested in tech jobs — or just want to find work with benefits that could pay a median annual salary of $78,000 after a year of on-the-job training — Apprenti might be exactly what you need to jump-start a new career.”
Panoramic Photo Tour - MN Vets Home Hastings - Use "Open Index Feature" Editors Note: I enjoyed participating in the following podcast featuring the veterans community in which I have resided for the last 15 years. With 3 more homes on the horizon in Bemidji, Montevideo and Preston, adding to the existing 5 vets homes in the state, Minnesota is at the forefront of health care for its military veterans.
Ken Larson
"Minnesota Military Radio"
"This week we meet with the Minnesota Department of Veterans
Affairs and learn about the Minnesota Veterans Homes, discuss Military
and Absentee Voting with Secretary of State Steve Simon, find out about
the upcoming Nearly Naked Ruck March and get an update from our County
Veteran Service Officer. Guests include:
“The
Air Force awarded an eye-watering $62 billion contract for overseas
F-16 customers August 14. In a world amid a pandemic, you’d think
there’d be smarter things to spend $62 billion on."
As the pandemic-strapped U.S. continues into a second decade of the war on
terror and a new war on COVID 19 our citizens and our volunteer military are growing disinterested in warfare and focused on re-aligning our priorities.
The Military Industrial Complex (MIC) has made grand strides in technology, spending billions on new air craft and naval
vessels, cyber warfare tools and sensors, while we have downsized combat soldiers
to stand in the job line or wait for admission to veterans’ hospitals as our health care infrastructure was sacrificed for war profiteering.
CRITERIA
FOR WINNING
“THE
ATLANTIC”
“Although
no one can agree on an exact figure, our dozen years of war in Iraq,
Afghanistan, and neighboring countries have cost at least $1.5 trillion. Yet
from a strategic perspective, to say nothing of the human cost, most of these
dollars might as well have been burned. “At this point, it is incontrovertibly
evident that the U.S. military failed to achieve any of its strategic goals in
Iraq,” a former military intelligence officer named Jim Gourley wrote recently
for Thomas E. Ricks’s blog, Best Defense. “Evaluated according to the goals set
forth by our military leadership, the war ended in utter defeat for our
forces.” In
13 years of continuous combat under the Authorization for the Use of Military
Force, the longest stretch of warfare in American history, U.S. forces have
achieved one clear strategic success: the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.
Their many other tactical victories, from overthrowing Saddam Hussein to
allying with Sunni tribal leaders to mounting a “surge” in Iraq, demonstrated
great bravery and skill. But they brought no lasting stability to, nor advance
of U.S. interests in, that part of the world. When
ISIS troops overran much of Iraq, the
forces that laid down their weapons and fled before them were members of the
same Iraqi national army that U.S. advisers had so expensively yet
ineffectively trained for more than five years.” The Tragedy of the American Military RISK ASSESSMENT Our government has not
considered the risks, the indigenous cultural impact, the expense and the
sacrifices required to sustain the nation building that must occur after we
invade countries in pursuit of perceived enemies and place the burden of
governance on military personnel who are not equipped to deal with it or manage USAID
contractors who have profit motives in mind and corruption as a regular practice. “POGO” "Cost-plus
contracts have long been criticized by government watchdogs like the Project On Government Oversight
and waste-conscious lawmakers. Most recently, incoming Senate Armed Services
Committee Chairman John McCain (R-AZ) bluntly stated that
these contracts are “disgraceful” and should be banned." Your Tax Dollars Defrauded THOSE
WHO HAVE FOUGHT ASK GOOD QUESTIONS ‘NEW YORK TIMES” “There
are 26 veterans from the United States’ two most recent wars serving in the
House and Senate. Many
say their experience in Iraq and Afghanistan taught them that the American
military cannot fix what is fundamentally a cultural and political issue: the
inability of governments to thwart extremism within their own borders. Ted
Lieu of California, said he would not support giving the president the formal
authority he had requested because, like many veterans, he finds it difficult
to see how the conflict will ever end. “The American military is an
amazing force. We are very good at defeating the enemy, taking over territory,
blowing things up,” said Mr. Lieu, who served in the Air Force and remains in
the Air Force Reserve as a lieutenant colonel. “But America has traditionally
been very bad at answering the next question, which is what do you do after
that.”
Veterans of the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan now serving in Congress have emerged as some of the most important
voices in the debate over whether to give President Obama
a broad authorization for a military campaign against the Islamic State or
something much more limiting.”
“A people untouched (or seemingly untouched) by war
are far less likely to care about it,” Andrew Bacevich wrote in 2012. Bacevich
himself fought in Vietnam; his son was killed in Iraq. “Persuaded that they
have no skin in the game, they will permit the state to do whatever it wishes
to do.” The Tragedy of the American Military BUYING OUR WAY OUT?
Foreign
aid in the billions continues to the Middle East.US weapons export sales have reached a
crescendo, increasing by 31% to 94 countries. with the Middle East receiving
the line share.
"The world is a much more
dangerous place, there is more radicalism, more countries that are melting down
or approaching that state."
At the same time, the Pentagon is
under growing pressure to cut spending and the cost of the all-volunteer force
keeps rising, Prince said.
"The U.S. military has mastered
the most expensive way to wage war, with a heavy expensive footprint."
Over the long run, the military might have to rely more on contractors, as it
will become tougher to recruit service members.
Prince cited recent statistics that 70
percent of the eligible population of prospective troops is unsuitable to serve
in the military for various reasons such as obesity, lack of a high school
education, drug use, criminal records or even excessive tattoos. In some cases,
Prince said, it might make more sense to hire contractors.”
QUESTIONS
FOR THE READER: Did not the Roman Empire run
into these issues when they outsourced their wars and went to the baths?
Image: Photolibra
What makes us believe this worldwide war of attrition can continue indefinitely and
that our younger generations are going to be willing to enlist and/or pay the
bills, especially when our health care is now at the top of the agenda.
Can we insist our government representatives consider
these factors and plan ahead?
Future generations, their wealth, health and treasure will
depend on our answers.
Airman Karla Parra/Air Force
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