What should we do for Memorial Day?
I cannot match the power or eloquence of Kelly Grayson's Memorial Day post.
I want to reflect on how Decoration Day is reflected in our new normal.
Be aware that there are more deployments
Active duty, reserve and National Guard troops are experiencing more combat exposure than earlier generations. Some reservists have completed three deployments.
James Hosek, Jennifer Kavanagh, Laura Miller (2006) How Deployments Affect Service Members
The one-third cut in active-duty manpower at the end of the Cold War, from 2.1 million to 1.4 million in uniform, combined with a shift in the national security environment, has today resulted in the need for longer and repeated deployments, especially for the Army and the Marine Corps, and these deployments have posed challenges for active-duty service members and for their families.
Terri Tanielian (March 2009) Assessing Combat Exposure and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in Troops and Estimating the Costs to Society: Implications from the RAND Invisible Wounds of War Study
Learn from the Millennium Cohort Study
A prospective study of veteran health started in 2001 and ending in 2022, may identify trends we will encounter when helping our brothers and sisters who have served.
US Medicine: What We Can Learn in 21 Years. Looking at physiological (respiratory, cardiovascular and muscolo-skeletal), environment (sleep) and psychological (Depression, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). Click HERE to see the presentations list.
Initial results include identification of increased alcohol risks for reservists and national guard members after deployment.
Of 50,000 responders, 4.8 percent of active-duty members and 7.1 percent of reserve-component members reported the onset of alcohol-related problems after deployment. Six percent of active-duty members and 8.8 percent of reservists and Guardsmen reported that they had begun heavy weekly drinking. In addition, 26.6 percent of active-duty members and 25.6 percent in the reserve components reported post-deployment binge drinking. (HERE)
Also identifying an increased rate of respiratory symptoms of no known etiology
Troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan have a higher rate of developing persistent or recurring cough or shortness of breath than nondeployers (14 percent vs. 10 percent), according to a survey of more than 46,000 military personal. Yet, the cause of this spike remains a mystery. The survey – based on self-reported symptoms – did not find an increased rate of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or asthma. (HERE)
As well as hypertension after multiple combat exposures
"Deployment with multiple combat exposures appeared to be a unique risk factor for newly reported hypertension," Nisara S. Granado, an epidemiologist at the Naval Health Research Center in San Diego and lead author of a report in the Sept. 14, 2009, online issue of Hypertension, said in a statement.
Hypertension, or high blood pressure, thus joins the list of problems resulting from constant exposure to the life-threatening experience of combat. They include post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, substance abuse and attention deficits.
Nisara and her colleagues drew on the records of 36,061 service members, including 8,829 deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan between 2001 and 2003. After a three-year follow-up, the researchers found that those who reported multiple combat exposures were 33 percent more likely to report they had high blood pressure than those spared combat.
Troops sent to combat areas but not exposed to combat were 23 percent less likely to report high blood pressure than those who saw action, the researchers said. (HERE)
Act individually to make a difference
Bill Carey, in Backstep Firefighter, shares a recognition from the Boston Medal Day:
The Massachusetts Iraq and Afghanistan Fallen Heroes Memorial Fund was founded in 2010, to build a permanent memorial to the sons and daughters of Massachusetts who have given their lives in service to our nation in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Firefighter Daniel J. Magoon Engine Company 21 and Firefighter Edward A. Kelly Tower Ladder17, dedicated hundreds of hours of personal time helping to build the organization and coordinate its first major event. The memorial team would not have become what it has without the leadership and guidance of Firefighter Edward A. Kelly and Firefighter Daniel J. Magoon during its critical initial forming stages.
Firefighter Magoon’s (Treasurer of Organization) and Kelly’s (Board of Directors) selfless service, leadership, and organizational abilities are in keeping with the finest traditions of the Fire service, and reflect great credit upon himself, Boston Firefighters, and the Boston Fire Department.
Kelly Grayson (Ambulance Driver) makes two great recommendations in his MEMORIAL DAY post:
Remind yourself also that your sacrifice is infinitely easier. All you need do is sacrifice a moment of your time every few years to pull a lever.
The way to honor a dead soldier is not simply to fly a flag on Memorial Day.
Vote to preserve the freedoms they died defending. Elect leaders worthy of those rough young men and women who stand ready to do violence on your behalf.
And stop by your local Veteran’s Cemetery and put out some flowers on the grave of your choice. It need not even be the grave of someone you know.
Bring your children along, and explain to them why it’s important
Mike "FossilMedic" Ward
to read more and to order.
for more information and to order.
to read about this book and, hopefully, order one for yourself.
Close to Home ….
6 comments…. And Getting Personal
Note: A recent article in the Washington Post reported on the conclusion of a jury trial in which a sexual harrassment complainant was awarded a settlement. The original incident took place in 2001. For background you can read the STORY HERE.
Questions Asked During a Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department (FCFRD) Recruitment Interview:
First, a disclosure: I was affiliated with FCFRD from 1975 to 1998 and I know many of the persons referenced in US District Court Judge Cacheris’s Memorandum .
Fairfax, often seen as an innovator, once again moves to the front of the line by introducing blatant sexual harassment as part of the hiring process. Why wait till the fire house if you can start during the interview process?
The County’s attorneys, famous for pursuing odious cases that damage the institutional fabric of the community and the agencies involved, did their lawyerly best to destroy plaintiff’s claims that sex toy inquiries do not a happy work place make. The jury thought otherwise, taking all of three hours to decide that $250K is the direct cost to taxpayers when fire officers add sex-based questions to the interview process.
Defendant’s likely motivation? He’s lazy, of course. He employed the Bill Clinton/John Ensign "look no further than those I have power over" approach to lining up the next orgasm. The judge (and I’ll bet the jury) took special offence to the defendant’s repeated assertions that he "knew things about her", a gross power play that smacks of blackmail or coercion.
This case is especially egregious as it involved a prospective employee and the perpetrator was a supervisor. Once it was brought to light, management’s no nonsense and courageous response was a letter of reprimand and a transfer, actions sure to strike mortal fear in the hearts of sexual harassers everywhere. Actual leaders would, of course, understand that since their own managers were engaging in such conduct that something a little more costly than a reprimand would be necessary. But not in Fairfax, apparently.
Judge Cacheris’s memorandum details a fire-rescue department immersed in a culture saturated with sexual banter, and worse. One fire fighter said ‘he "knows" that comments such as "tea bagging" [a slang term for oral sex] and "protein shake," a slang term for ejaculation, happen "everyday" both at his fire station and others and "that is how [the Department]is[, and] it has always been like that…’
And, there are other shoes to drop. Another federal trial alleging more sexual harassment is slated to begin next month, apparently involving some of the same players. At least it should make the deposition process easier. Maybe the attorneys will offer a two-for-one discount, though I doubt it.
But seriously, in the "management’s always right" Commonwealth of Virginia, Fairfax County’s attorneys will once again line up behind the knuckleheads, waste another million bucks or so and permanently alienate women in the FCFRD. What they should do instead, is take a hard look at the abysmal lack of leadership that gave rise to this ship wreck and make some changes before the whole operation glides beneath the waves in a most ungraceful fashion. But I won’t hold my breath for that.
To end on a slightly tangential but never-the-less relevant note, it is these cases that give the lie to all of the apocalyptic prophecies regarding gays and lesbians serving in the military or uniformed services. With but the most rare of exceptions, heterosexuals are in absolute and total command of both the workplace sex and sexual harassment fields and are not destined to relinquish claim to either in the foreseeable future. The specter of randy "queers" invading the workplace cruising for easy sex is insulting, ridiculous, and absurd. That job is already "firmly in hand", no pun intended, and Fairfax is the most recent proof of that.
……… Eric Lamar
* * * * * * *