Support Our Troops’ Right to Heal
Dear Members of Military Families Speak Out,
Iraq Veterans Against the War have always been an organization we are proud to support, and proud to call our allies.
They are about to launch their first strategic campaign – Operation Recovery: Stop the Deployment of
Traumatized Troops.
As military families, we know this story well. We have seen our loved ones sent back to war without adequate care for physical or mental injuries – care that they needed and deserved.
Because of our stories, we can play a vital role in this campaign. Right now, we are looking for a few people who can speak directly to the issue of redeployment of troops that are suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), and Military Sexual Trauma (MST). If you are willing to write a short account of your story (anonymous or not), or be interviewed about this issue, please contact National Organizer Nikki Morse at nikki@mfso.org.
In addition, we can play a role by filling out the IVAW Pledge of Support. They have a goal of reaching 2,000 by October 7th when they publically announce their campaign. In the coming months we will be identifying additional ways to help build this campaign. Signing the pledge is the first way you can be part of it.
More information about the campaign, as well as the link to the Pledge, are found below. Please help build MFSO’s support for this vital campaign! Let us know you want to be involved, and if you have personal stories about this important issue.
Nikki Morse, Organizer
Military Families Speak Out
347-703-0570 (cell)
(Below is the latest email from Iraq Veterans Against the War about
the campaign)
On October 7, the 9th anniversary of the Afghanistan War, Iraq
Veterans Against the War will announce our first-ever strategic campaign, Operation
Recovery: Stop the Deployment of Traumatized Troops. As a loyal
supporter, we are letting you know about our plans before we make them public.
Join our campaign now by making a Pledge of Support.
Thousands of troops are being sent to war despite suffering from
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), and Military
Sexual Trauma (MST). Many of us within IVAW have faced or are currently facing
deployment as we try to recover from the severe trauma we have already
experienced.
While we recognize that we must stop the deployment of all soldiers
in order to end the occupations in Iraq and Afhganistan, we see the deployment
of soldiers with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Traumatic Brain Injuries, and
Military Sexual Trauma as particularly cruel, inhumane, and dangerous. Military
commanders across all branches are pushing service members far past human
limits for the sake of ‘combat readiness.’ We cannot allow those
commanders to continue to ignore the welfare of their troops who are, after
all, human beings.
Because you are a trusted supporter, we are asking you to make a
commitment to help us end this systemic abuse of GIs’ right to heal, which only
furthers the cycle of dehumanization and destruction of these wars.
Sign the Pledge today.
By signing this pledge of support, you can stand with us in
solidarity and affirm:
Service members have the right to heal.
Because the military is desperate for warm bodies in the field, and
the VA doesn’t have the resources to serve all those in need, too often service
members are conveniently denied care or access to quality mental health
screenings. We say, service members with PTSD, TBI, MST, and combat
stress have the right to high quality health care. They have the right to
seek care and pursue treatments in the best interest of their health and
well-being.
Service members have the right to receive
medical care and advice from medical professionals.
A commander’s orders always supersedes the opinion of military
medical professionals when it comes to the well-being of our troops. We
say, no military authority shall override the advice of medical professionals
regarding the health of service members.
Service members who experience PTSD, TBI, MST,
and combat stress have the right to exit the traumatic situation and receive
compensation and immediate support.
Too often, service members are forced to redeploy back into
dangerous combat, or train in situations that re-traumatize them. We
say, individuals suffering from trauma have the right to remove themselves from
the source of the trauma. Service members who are not physically or mentally
healthy shall not be forced to deploy or continue service.
We will support service members standing up for their right to heal,
and we will stand against those responsible for violating them.
Will you stand with us? Sign the Pledge today.
We know that without the repeated
use of traumatized soldiers on the battlefield, the occupations in Iraq and
Afghanistan could not continue.
Those responsible for the deployment of traumatized soldiers will do
everything they can to hide the truth, but through our Operation Recovery
campaign, IVAW is prepared to make demands and back them up with collective
action.
For the past nine months, we have been developing this campaign.
In the coming weeks, we will let you know of specific ways to get involved.
Start today by signing the Pledge of Support.
We can’t do this without you.
Sincerely,
The Campaign Team
Speech by MFSO Member Nancy Nygard at the Veterans For Peace National Convention, August 2010
Hi!
I am so glad to see everyone here.
I am a very proud member of Veterans For Peace. My husband and I joined VFP in 2005. At the same time we joined Military Families Speak Out.
Our son Joe had joined the army in 2003 and by 2005 was getting ready to deploy to Afghanistan. We were against the invasions of both Iraq and Afghanistan and knew we had to speak out, act out, rise up. Doing
nothing was not an option.
In February of 2006 Joe was deployed to Afghanistan for a year. It was my first deployment also. I didn’t know what to do or what to think. Why was I crying all the time? Why was I so angry at all the other
mom’s in the supermarket? Why did I have such hatred of the assholes with hummers?
MFSO helped me understand that it was ok to cry and that anger could be turned into action. They comforted me and held my hand and I knew I never had to say I’m sorry. They understood that I wanted to hear all the news but I didn’t want to hear all the news. They knew about the sleepless nights and I know they remembered holding their babies in their arms and never imagining having to let them go to war. They were and still are the sanity in my insanity that surely goes on for me and so many other military families.
My son Joe was stop lossed in September of 2006 until February 2007. His tour of duty was extended another 4 months. He spent 16 months in Afghanistan. During his deployment 71 soldiers from his brigade were either killed in action or died in accidents. 3rd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division carved out the northern most outposts in Afghanistan. Two years later the army would begin closing them down. Outposts where my son said “good soldiers died”.
In September of 2007 Joe received his honorable discharge and left the army after serving 4 years on a 3 year enlistment. Joe enrolled in college full time, had a great paying part time job, had a daughter and
a son and the hope of change that was to come with a new president. Joe was proud of his service to his country and we are so proud of him.
Two years went by. Two years! In December of 2009 President Obama gave his surge on Afghanistan speech and the next day Fed-ex showed up at our door with orders for Joe to report for duty off the individual
ready reserve for deployment of no more than 400 days…to Iraq!
Thoughtless people told me he’s lucky he’s in Iraq like they used to tell me he’s lucky he’s in Afghanistan.
As of this month our combat commitment in Iraq has ended. I guess the combat infantry battalion my son is assigned to is there on vacation as are the entire 3rd infantry division, 3000 man brigades from the 4th
infantry division, Dave Cline’s old outfit the 25th infantry division, 2 combat aviation brigades and 2 national guard infantry brigades, all on vacation in sunny Iraq!
Standing guard over a stalled convoy, Joe writes, “after we dropped off our load at a little spot outside Tallil we pulled to the side in a friendly area and waited for the rest of our guys to catch up. We dismounted and smoked and joked for a little bit. That’s when the kids came up. I always liked talking to the local kids in Afghanistan. Their honesty and innocence about the only pure things in a shitty, shitty place. Here it is the same way. These poor children have known nothing but death and destruction in their young lives and even if after we leave, their country turns to peace, they will forever be scarred from the horrors they have seen. Life for them has always been about survival. Seeing little girls the age of my little daughter, running
alongside our convoy, their clothes dirty and their feet bare, offering anything, even themselves for just a bottle of water breaks my heart. Back on the base, eating ice cream and pizza and buffalo wings, just
makes the whole experience of war more disgusting. As these people starve to death, partly because of us, we eat like kings”.
To a certain extent our participation in MFSO and VFP has been a selfish act because we think that the American people, in spite of their yellow ribbons, don’t give a damn about American soldiers, but you do! I’ve found a community that not only believes in world peace but respects the courage and sacrifice of soldiers and their families. I’m so glad I’m not alone. Thank you Military Families Speak Out and
Veterans For Peace!
POWER TO THE PEOPLE!!
Military Families Say: The War is Not Over
Contact:
The withdrawal of U.S. service members deemed combat troops provides little solace for the over 4,400 families grieving families whose loved ones died as a result of the war in Iraq. Their grief is compounded by
the fact that their loss has not made America safer or improved the lives of Iraqis; and that other families continue to face the possibility of this same devastating loss.
Nancy Nygard, a Military Family Speaks Out member from Teaneck, New Jersey, said, “My son served a 16 month deployment in Afghanistan, being stop-lossed and extended past his initial 12 month deployment. In December of 2009, within 24 hours of President Obama’s speech on the surge in Afghanistan, my son Joe received FedEx’d orders to report for duty assigned to combat infantry unit to serve in Iraq for 400 days. He had returned home, was honorably discharged and had begun rebuilding his life. He was in school full-time, and raising his two young children. Now what he is doing in Iraq? He was a combat troop when he deployed. Calling it something different does nothing to sooth his wife and young children. Claiming an end to the war when my family is devastated is a farce. This war is not over.”
Military Families Speak Out continues to call for a true end to the military occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan, for all troops to be brought home quickly and safely from both countries and for returning
troops to get the care they need when they return.
Celeste Zappala, Cynthia Benjamin, Nancy Nygard and other Gold star
and military families are available for interview. More information
about Military Families Speak Out and Gold Star Families Speak Out can
be found at www.mfso.org.
Veterans and Military Families Say Pentagon Statements on Wikileaks aim to Cloud Real Issues
August 3, 2010
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CONTACT:
Mike Ferner, Veterans For Peace,
419-729-7273
Deb Forter, Military Families
Speak Out, 617-983-0710
Jose Vasquez, Iraq Veterans
Against the War, 917-587-3334
As organizations, we represent veterans and military families. We have personally carried the burden of the war in Afghanistan, along with wars past. We are glad that the truth about the war is getting out to the public with the recent 92,000 documents on Wikileaks. Hopefully, this will inspire a massive outcry against this war that is wreaking so much destruction to our exhausted and demoralized troops and their families while draining our national coffers.
Obama administration officials are trying to spin events in their favor. Their words must be carefully examined. On the one hand, in an effort to downplay the significance of the release, we are told the documents contain no new information.
On the other hand, some high ranking members of the U.S. military are trying to: 1) intimidate anyone else from doing the same thing and 2) turn public opinion against whoever leaked the current documents. Towards those goals, we are told that grievous harm will surely come to many Afghans and U.S. military personnel – if not now then certainly later.
A more damning statement could hardly be imagined than this one from Admiral Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, “The truth is they might already have on their hands the blood of some young soldier or that of an Afghan family.”
While we certainly do not wish to see one additional person put at risk in this tragic, wrongheaded war, we must state the following as clearly as we can.
As veterans and families with members in the military, we consider statements like Admiral Mullen’s to be nothing more than calculated attempts to turn public attention away from the real problem – the ongoing occupation of Afghanistan that has already caused the deaths and injuries of many thousands of innocent people all the while millions of Americans are jobless and face foreclosure or eviction.
This suffering in Afghanistan and this bleeding at home will continue as long as our troops remain in that country. Congress must stop funding this war. We must bring our troops home now, take care of them properly when they return and pay to rebuild the damage we have caused to Afghanistan.
Veterans For Peace is a national organization in its 25th year, with military service members from WWII and every conflict and period since then.
Military Families Speak Out is an organization of people opposed to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who have relatives or loved ones who are currently in the military or who have served in the military since the fall of 2002.
Iraq Veterans Against the War is a national organization comprised of active duty, guard, and reserve troops and veterans who have served since 9/11. We call for immediate withdrawal of all occupying forces from Iraq and Afghanistan, reparations to the people of those countries, and full benefits for returning service members.
A Mother’s Tears
Mothers’ Tears
Reflection of a mother of a soldier/veteran of Iraq/Afghanistan wars
“It is now some years later and most remember where they were that day and what they were doing. For me that day was more than a horrific event. That day changed my life forever, the aftermath and events to come weigh heavily on my soul, and will until judgment day. I lost a piece of myself that day and later a piece of my soul.” (From “The Crying of Souls” written by my son reflecting on 9/11)
Over 30 years ago I gave birth to a son. His arrival came in the middle of the night with great anticipation. The delivery team of doctor and nurses were wagering on whether I was having a boy or a girl. For me it didn’t matter – I wanted this life out of my body but more I wanted this life to be healthy. After my final push a healthy baby was placed in my arms and tears of joy flowed as I looked into the face of a beautiful gift of life.
My son became was one of those who I refer to as ‘squishy babies’ – he was just so cuddly and snuggly. To say he was cute isn’t just a mother’s statement – he was and it was this ‘cuteness’ that saved him many times from trouble or got him into it. I found this fifth child of mine to be one of my greatest challenges as a mother accompanied with many tears of frustration. He became a young man who would try anything with little fear and could respond to an emergency with level headedness and courage. As he grew into his teens the challenges were on every level. When he was around 21 he went to a recruiter and came home to tell me he joined the army. Later he told me that he made this decision because as he watched his friends go down a path of drugs and lives of no prospects and he wanted something different for himself and felt the military was where he could achieve his goals. I was facing mixed feelings of dread of having a child in the military and yet being proud of a son who saw two paths and chose one that could save him and my tears of pride outweighed my tears of fear.
We are not a military family and I have protested wars for most of my life but at that time when he joined, we were not in any particular war and my hopes was that maybe he could find himself, find a career – find a way to use his gifts and talents. He thrived in his life as a soldier – and when he came home from boot-camp walking down the airport ramp my heart burst with pride and tears of seeing my son now a young man, content within his choice. When I was in labor, my prayers were for a healthy baby and now my son seemed healthy and happy with his decision and I was okay with that.
Then 9/11 happened and life forever changed for military families. While the President at that time told the American people to ‘go back to normal life’ – ‘to go shopping’ – that he would take care of things, for those in the military life would never be normal again and spending time shopping wasn’t even an option. I found my days in constant state of tears knowing deep down that at some point my son was going to be sent somewhere into a war because of the attack. There were acquaintances who had no sons or daughters in the military tell me that I worry too much – that things will be fine. When I spoke out against the possibility of going to war in Iraq, and my tears of what our country was about to do, I was told by others that I was unpatriotic, that I was clueless about the horror of terrorism. No I was not clueless I knew what the cost of war was going to be first hand.
The day my son called to say good-bye as he was going to Iraq my heart broke and the tears flowed. My body was gripped in fear and I began to hold my breath as I did when he was a toddler running through the house – fearing he would fall or hit his head – or as he grew older and went out the door – holding my breath until he would return safely to our home. Now he was going to war –into a horror that I could not stop and could only hold my breath and pray that he would return – safe and healthy.
That day my son changed. He had three deployments – two in Iraq and the last in Afghanistan. It was in Afghanistan that my son experienced the horror of war at its peak. He almost died twice and he also experienced more the deep destruction of his soul as he killed others, as he watched children become pawns in a war of adults, and as he picked up body parts of his buddies and held a soldier as life seeped and exhaled out of his body. Along with all of this, his wife completely fell apart and he asked the family to have her come live near us until he came home. We had no idea of the extent of her breakdown and within a couple of months of moving near us, she took the children and ran away to meet with a man she met on-line. The youngest in our family were lost to us for 10 weeks and my son in warzone was thrown into the pit of despair, unable to come home to find his family. A young man, who took the oath to defend his country, was helpless in defending his family. My son was hurting and I lay helpless every night in tears unable to take away his pain as I did when he was little. Eventually we did find the children, and we were able to bring them back and keep them safe with us.
My son finished his time in Afghanistan and requested and received an honorable discharge. He came home to take care of his children. I was relieved that my son was home from the war and he could no longer be sent back into the throws of hell. Little did I realize that while my son left the war behind him, the war has not left him. When he first got home, he was his old self – crazy, funny and wanting so much to find normalcy in his life and being with his family again. His marriage had ended but he had his children and that seemed to be all that he needed. He got a good job and decided to go back to school to get a degree – looking into possibly EMT work or working at a VA center. However after awhile the dark remnants of the war started to immerge and he became argumentative, explosive, angry, and even hateful.
He no longer laughed or joked. Family gatherings became events for arguing and hateful rhetoric. He had rage against anyone he felt were whiners or complainers; commenting at times with phrases of ‘they think they have it tough, try looking into the fact of someone you killed.’ Or, ‘they think they have it tough, try holding a friend’s body together.’ He was angry at the world and rightly so but his anger became misdirected. He and I went to a social worker at the VA because the family kept telling my son that he has issues and he could not see what we were talking about. It was a good session as I talked about how it was like walking on egg shells around my son – never know what would trigger his outbursts. I cried as I stated how I missed ‘my son.’ Tears filled my son’s eyes when he listened.
I had hoped that was the beginning of healing for him but in actuality he has never sought help again because he deems himself ‘okay.’ How could any human being be okay after what he has experienced? The radio and talk show racist commentators who make their money spewing hate now feed into my son’s anger and it helps him justify such feelings and hate for everyone.
My son was raised Catholic, steeped in tradition of family life. Our family is very diverse and because my children’s father is full-blooded Lebanese, they themselves along with their father have had to deal with racism, profiling, and vile comments because they are of Mid-eastern culture. My son ignores what such hate does to his family and pursues his own racist, hateful comments of others. It rips at my heart because he is becoming the total antithesis of his upbringing. He was taught tolerance and acceptance now he has no compassion, does not care for anyone and cares little about others’ pain. He looks for ways to start arguments.
I find my tears flowing more and more as I watch my son ‘die’ while alive. I cannot imagine the horror my son, my child has experienced in war; no mother ever wants her child to experience desecration of life or decisions that war forces humans to make. So many mothers in our world scream into their pillows at night for the shear pain of losing a child to war. Their tears could fill rivers to over-flowing and the emptiness remains a lifetime. Because of the group Military Families Speak Out (MFSO), my family and I have found out we are not alone in any of this. There are also mothers like myself who watch their child’s spirits slowly die while trying to live. The child we gave life to now is a child in which life doesn’t exist.
When my son was in Iraq the first time, I actually had people tell me that this wasn’t as bad as wars in the past because there are not that many soldiers dying!! I didn’t know how to respond to such ignorance – I just sat and stared at them wondering how that would console a mother whose child just died. I have written and spoke out against congressmen who make callous remarks about soldiers’ lives being expendable and have met with representatives to talk about ending the wars.
War is wrong and I have yet to be convinced otherwise. I will continue to write and speak out for I want my grandchildren to read what I have written and spoken, so that maybe their generation will see war for what it is and search other ways to solve our world’s problems. I wish for them that war becomes just a word and peace a way of life. Mothers’ tears should only be shed for the pure joy of life not because of its destruction.
By Susan Handle Terbay