Battling the Storm Within Blog

As the Author of the #1 Amazon National-International Best Seller War Memoir “Battling the Storm Within” about living 20 years undiagnosed with PTSD, MST and the GWI. My mission is to empower others to address their own personal traumas, be healed, restored and live again. I believe in telling the truth, living the truth and being the truth. I will share the truth for it sets you free. I have battled my storm that was within me and won, so can you! Peace and blessings Sgt. Stephanie J. Shannon

Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Gillibrand: survivors take precedence in debate over military sexual assault cases

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U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand talks to members of the Editorial Board during a visit to the Post-Star in Glens Falls, Wednesday.

GLENS FALLS — The voice of survivors should take precedence over the voice of military leaders in the debate over transferring prosecution of military sexual assault cases from military commanders to independent military trial lawyers, said U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.

Celebrating the women Veterans whose courage and sacrifice help demonstrate equality

Women's Equality Day 2016

“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

Military must do right by wrongly-discharged sexual assault victims, advocates say

Thousands of former service members who were diagnosed with personality disorders due to their sexual assaults and kicked out of the military still have little effective recourse to clearing their record, the advocacy group Human Rights Watch said Thursday.

In a new report, "Booted: Lack of Recourse for Wrongfully Discharged U.S. Military Rape Survivors," Human Rights Watch said that although the Defense Department has dramatically reduced its use of discharges for personality disorders after 2009, there were still 31,000 veterans discharged on those grounds between fiscal 2001 and 2010. Sarah Darehshori, a senior counsel at Human Rights Watch, said the group did not know how many of those 31,000 had suffered sexual assaults, but said "it is suspicious that a disproportionate number" -- roughly 30 percent -- "of the discharges were women."

What if PTSD Is More physical than psychological?

In early 2012, a neuropathologist named Daniel Perl was examining a slide of human brain tissue when he saw something odd and unfamiliar in the wormlike squiggles and folds. It looked like brown dust; a distinctive pattern of tiny scars. Perl was intrigued. At 69, he had examined 20,000 brains over a four-decade career, focusing mostly on Alzheimer’s and other degenerative disorders. He had peered through his microscope at countless malformed proteins and twisted axons. He knew as much about the biology of brain disease as just about anyone on earth. But he had never seen anything like this.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/12/magazine/what-if-ptsd-is-more-physical-than-psychological.html?_r=2

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www.battlingthestormwithin.com

They’re Making A Crucial Change To Dog Tags After Nearly 40 Years!

Via darwin.wins

Dog tags have been a way of individualizing our servicemembers during the past century. It gave them solace to know that they wouldn’t die unidentified. If their bodies were found, they’d be received by their families. But this entire time, the U.S. Armed forces have been printing something on dog tags that has recently become a larger issue…

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http://dustyoldthing.com/new-dogtags-change/

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www.battlingthestormwithin.com

US Senators push for automatic disability status for poisoned vets- VIDEO

WASHINGTON, DC (WWAY) — Today US Senators Richard Burr and Thom Tillis sent a letter to Office of Management and Budget Director Shaun Donavan urging the Department of Veterans Affairs to grant presumptive disability status to veterans suffering from diseases caused by poisoned water at Camp Lejeune, including Parkinson’s Disease, Bladder Cancer and Leukemia, among others.

Legion: Presumptive service connection for Gulf War Illness is a catch-22

Zachary Hearn, deputy director of benefits for the Legion’s Veteran Affairs and Rehabilitation Division, testified regarding the VA’s disability claim process as it relates to Gulf War Illness

According to the Department of Veterans Affairs’ March 2014 Update for Gulf War Veterans newsletter, 37 percent of veterans that served during Operation Desert Storm suffer from symptoms associated with Gulf War service. Yet, in over 9,300 days since the final shots of Operation Desert Storm were fired, approximately 80 percent of all claims associated with Persian Gulf service were denied, according to a separate VA report.

Vets study links PB pills, genetic variations to Gulf War illness

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Philip G. Pavely | Trib Total Media

The Rev. Barry Walker, 75, a former Army chaplain, suffers from Gulf War illness. He has been a national advocate for research regarding the physical causes of the illness.

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http://triblive.com/mobile/7556932-96/war-gulf-illness

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www.battlingthestormwithin.com

Veterans eligible to receive free cybersecurity training

DHS and Hire Our Heroes offer free cyber training

Veterans eligible to receive free cybersecurity training

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Hire Our Heroes have teamed up to offer training for Veterans in cybersecurity, in support of Veterans join our nation’s cybersecurity workforce.

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https://hireourheroes.org/2016/08/15/veterans-eligible-receive-free-cybersecurity-training/

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www.battlingthestormwithin.com

Military Sexual Assault Trauma Is So Common It Has An Acronym (MST)

Photo: PodMed photography

This week we saw a screening of “Thank You For Your Service,” a film about mental health in the military, directed by Tom Donahue. Serendipitous because we’d been diving deeper into the topic of the systematic dysfunction of war. It clearly starts from the top down but this isn’t an article about politics. This is a piece about the people who suffer.

In the film (stay tuned for the review) they talked about PTSD and the many different forms of trauma experienced by soldiers. In an earlier piece, we talked about rape in the military as experienced by Mary Getty who was gang raped by six soldiers she’d previously considered close friends.

Why doesn’t the government take care of our vets? Perhaps as former Mayor Guiliani said in TYFYS, government agencies don’t care about people, they aren’t paid to.

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http://www.honeysucklemag.com/sexual-assault-in-the-military-mst/

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www.battlingthestormwithin.com

Saturday, August 20, 2016

The war in Congress over rape in the military, explained

Sexual assault is a huge problem in the US military. And for many victims, the process of reporting their crime and seeking justice can be as traumatic as their assault.

Department of Defense Press Briefing on Sexual Assault in the Military in the Pentagon Press Briefing Room

News Transcript

Press Operations

Presenters: Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, Acting Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Brad Carson, and Dr. Nathan Galbreath, senior executive advisor for the Department of Defense Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office
May 1, 2015

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http://www.defense.gov/News/Transcripts/Transcript-View/Article/607047/department-of-defense-press-briefing-on-sexual-assault-in-the-military-in-the-p#.V7I40vyC8xM.facebook

Female Marine can't complete Infantry Officer Course; no more women now enrolled

A female Marine officer who was dropped from the Infantry Officer Course in April has failed the course on her second try.

“At this time, there are no female officers enrolled or slated to attend IOC,” Capt. Joshua Pena, a spokesman for Training and Education Command, said.

Still sick 25 years after the Gulf War, a vet seeks answers- and the Minneapolis VA may have them

It’s been 25 years, and Chad Donovan still wonders which toxic hazard in the Gulf War might have caused the fatigue, stomach problems and rashes he has suffered ever since.

Tuesday, August 9, 2016

21 facts about the First Gulf War

The First Gulf War? Persian Gulf War? Desert Storm and/or Desert Shield? They’re all the same war. Whatever we call it now, it was the war which expelled Iraqi troops from Kuwait, checked a decade of Saddam Hussein’s aggression toward his neighbors, and broke the looming spectre of Vietnam that hung over the U.S. military.

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http://www.wearethemighty.com/articles/first-gulf-war

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www.battlingthestormwithin.com

US veterans suicide rate rose 32% since 2001: Study

Post-traumatic stress disorder and other psychiatric conditions contribute to a military suicide rate that far outstrips the rest of the US population.

The suicide rate among US military veterans has increased by more than 30 percent since 2001, a larger rise than in the wider population of the United States, according to a new government study.

Chronic fatigue syndrome is in your gut, not your head

Chronic fatigue syndrome is a condition where normal exertion leads to debilitating fatigue that isn't alleviated by rest.

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https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/06/160627160939.htm

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www.battlingthestormwithin.com

The PTSD marijuana study is now recruiting veteran volunteers

Researchers in Maryland and Arizona are looking for veteran volunteers to smoke up to two joints' worth of marijuana a day in a new study designed to find out if pot helps relieve symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Psychological scars increase risk of suicide among female vets

Veteran Victoria Lampton is photographed at Central Park in Fremont, Calif., on Tuesday, July 5, 2016. Lampton is one of many female vets battling severe PTSD after tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. (Josie Lepe/Bay Area News Group)

The casualty reports crossed Army Spc. Victoria Lampton's desk on a daily basis, but the grim reality of her tour in Afghanistan didn't grip her until death papers for one of her closest friends landed in her inbox.

Perhaps one of the most well-known transgendered service members, Chelsea Manning's hormone therapy was DoD-approved in February of 2015.

Military Sex Assault Survivor Fights Discharge Status

Bianca Cruz’s Navy career started with a job she loved on a ship in Japan, but after she was sexually assaulted by a sailor, her military life spiraled downward, ending with a “bad paper” discharge after serving 20 months.

“If it weren’t for the sexual assault, I would still be in Japan,” said Cruz, 22, a Navy hospital corpsman, who returned home in November 2015.

Why Women Veterans Have Become So Entrepreneurial

We already know that women business owners are driving the growth in small business, and that within that group, it's women of color who are making the most progress.

The things she carries: The story of Paraswimmer and U.S. Army Sgt. Elizabeth Marks

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- U.S. Army Sgt. Elizabeth Marks ponders a question from the barista: What kind of coffee would she like? Mild, medium, dark roasts -- the bronze, silver and gold of coffee. She smiles and offers a ready answer: "Whatever kind has the most caffeine." Fresh from a grueling morning swimming practice and weightlifting session, Marks needs the energy. She grabs her cup, walks upstairs and snags a seat by the window. A few miles to her left, Pikes Peak climbs 14,114 feet into the crisp blue sky.

Battling the Storm Within Blog