News

VFA’s Bobby Muller: Transformed By a Bullet From Marine to Peace Activist

The Humanitarian: Bobby Muller
A bullet transformed him from bad-ass Marine to peace activist. A Vietnam vet triumphs over his disability and educates others.

By: Cecilia Capuzzi Simon, Psychology Today

When he was a young soldier fighting in the Vietnam War, says Bobby…

Outside View: De-mythologizing the surge

William C. Danvers, UPI

The surge of 33,000 U.S. troops last year in Iraq is a focal point of the foreign policy debate between the two presidential candidates. Advocates say it is solely responsible for the improved security situation in Iraq…

Wooster soldier involuntarily kept in Army under its controversial ’stop-loss’ program

Sabrina Eaton, The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio)

WASHINGTON — Army Spc. Justin Sheeter of Wooster would like extra pay for the extra time he’s had to spend in Afghanistan fixing trucks for the 101st Airborne Divison.

Although his enlistment was supposed to…

U.S. Army’s ’stop-loss’ orders up dramatically over last year

Julian E. Barnes, Los Angeles Times

The jump coincides with the extension of combat tours from 12 to 15 months.

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U.S. deploys more than 43,000 unfit for combat

Gregg Zoroya, USA Today

WASHINGTON — More than 43,000 U.S. troops listed as medically unfit for combat in the weeks before their scheduled deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan since 2003 were sent anyway, Pentagon records show.

This reliance on troops found medically…

New Policy Urges Soldiers to Seek Mental Health Care

PBS: The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

In a bid to encourage veterans to get needed counseling, the Pentagon said Thursday that most military and civilian employees will no longer be required to disclose mental health treatment when applying for government jobs.…

‘The human psyche can only take so much’

Kirsten Scharnberg, the Chicago Tribune

Longer deployments taking toll on soldiers as combat stress, suicides, depression and family pressures soar

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Wars Harming Mental Health Of Soldiers, Spouses

Yochi J. Dreazen, the Wall Street Journal

Problems Present Long, Hidden Toll; Help Often Avoided

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Court Aims to Help Vets with Legal Troubles

Libby Lewis, NPR: Morning Edition

April 29, 2008 · As the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan put renewed focus on the issue of veterans’ mental health, a judge in Buffalo, N.Y., has created a special court to assist veterans who wind…

Personnel Costs

George C. Wilson, the National Journal’s CongressDaily

Congress was right and Army leaders were wrong in the argument that raged from President Bush’s invasion of Iraq in 2003 onward about how many troops were needed to fight two wars at once…