CENTRAL FLORIDA'S: BIG DADDY FRANK  

This show is Dedicated to America and all that makes it great. We must give thanks to our troops, police & fire, national guard, volunteers, family, and friends. Our show is packed with music, poems, stories, discussion, and recipes. Do something special for someone you don't know, its contagious.... God is our hope and future, thank him and believe that we will not fail....Through God all things are possible... Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Old School American Network....Come and give a shout to the troops overseas......

This show is close to my heart. I am fat and it is a place far from home. Image is so important today, people judge you by the way you look, dress, and act...The problem is overweight people come in all sizes and shapes. They do not see the true picture. Their emotions fog their view and their image. Their minds are cracked and bodies transformed. They are the outcasts and leftovers of society. A few rise to survive, yet many seem to fail. Listen to my story and stories of others. There is more than words to this issue! Lets talk...what do you feel?

Coach Holly and Big Daddy Are Here...We are going to talk about trauma and other disorders many people face every day of the year! This year with all its problems add a great deal of stress to our plates. A number of psychiatric disorders have been found to co-occur with PTSD, including, for example, major depression, anxiety disorders, borderline personality disorder, and substance use disorders. A history of trauma and PTSD has also been found to be common among people with eating disorders. How are all these things related? What are the signs? What can we do? For the first 30 minutes I will go over much of these questions and then at 2:30pm Coach Holly will be on with her fresh prospective. Stay tuned and check us out.... You may learn something......

It is estimated that as many as one third of all Iraq war veterans suffer from post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. We are familiar with wounded soldiers who loose a limb or who suffer a brain injury and our hearts ache for them. However, Iraq war veterans who have PTSD suffer in a different way and often in silence. PTSD is an injury that haunts many Iraq war veterans but it is invisible to most of us. Men, women, and children are killed as well as soldier's buddies and this all takes a toll. Female soldiers face another risk and 20% have reported "military sexual trauma" which translates to sexual assault. Today's Special Guest is Sgt. Angela Peacock US Retired. We have also invited our round table panel of Coach Holly, Bobbe, and Sherri to help out on this very important topic. Come and check us out, tell your family or friends to listen in or call in with a comment.....

http://www.loc.gov/vets/about.html

The Veterans History Project

The Veterans History Project relies on volunteers to collect and preserve stories of wartime service.

Our primary focus is on first-hand accounts of
U.S. Veterans from the following wars:

• World War I (1914-1920)
• World War II (1939-1946)
• Korean War (1950-1955)
• Vietnam War (1961-1975)
• Persian Gulf War (1990-1995)
• Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts (2001-present)

In addition, those U.S. citizen civilians who were actively involved in supporting war efforts (such as war industry workers, USO workers, flight instructors, medical volunteers, etc.) are also invited to share their valuable stories.

How did the Veterans History Project start?

The United States Congress created the Veterans History Project in 2000. The authorizing legislation (Public Law 106-380), sponsored by Representatives Ron Kind, Amo Houghton, and Steny Hoyer in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senators Max Cleland and Chuck Hagel in the U.S. Senate, received unanimous support and was signed into law by President William Jefferson Clinton on October 27, 2000.

 

This article appeared on page B - 7 of the San Francisco Chronicle

Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans join the homeless

Anna Sussman

Sean McKeen, a hardy, broad-shouldered 21-year-old with a wide smile, went to Iraq to clear land mines, and to get money for college. When he returned home, he became homeless in less than a week. He found himself sleeping in a cot in a crowded homeless shelter in San Francisco.

They are all part of a growing trend of homelessness among returning war on terrorism veterans.

More than 2,000 military personnel return home to California each month. Most have no specialized job experience, education or an easy familiarity with civilian life. And many have post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), making it difficult to get along with friends and family, and almost impossible to hold down a job.

"You feel like the whole world is against you when you get home," said Kreutzer. "I was sleeping on the sidewalk, whereas I had been wearing a uniform less than a year before." Soft- spoken and restless, Kreutzer was recruited in a 7-Eleven while still in high school. After five months in Afghanistan, he had a mental breakdown, diagnosed as PTSD. When he returned to the United States, he spent almost four years living on the streets.

Kreutzer said he's met several veterans of the war in Iraq on the streets of San Francisco, or sleeping in Golden Gate Park. He also said he met several veterans of the war in Afghanistan, like himself, who were in similar situations.

Kreutzer now lives in a temporary housing facility for veterans on Treasure Island, run by the group Swords to Plowshares. He attends PTSD counseling with other war on terrorism veterans so that he can learn to maintain a job and house. "I was haunted by a lot of issues, a lot of things that I saw over there that were not good things. There are some times when I can wake up in a room and think I'm still there. I still remember what it tastes like, the air over there. I see all the rocks, I see the people," said Kreutzer.

One of the symptoms of PTSD is isolation and withdrawal, according to Amy Fairweather, director of the Iraq Veterans project at Swords to Plowshares. "So that interferes with your ability to get a job. People sit in the dark by themselves," she said.

Fairweather is seeing large numbers of homeless war on terrorism veterans come through her doors.

"Homelessness can happen very quickly, if they don't get the help they need. Their mental health will get worse, they will become more depressed," she said. "We are seeing Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, who are homeless, coming in very quickly. After Vietnam, it generally took about five to 10 years to end up on the streets. We're seeing people on the streets three months after they come home."

Moss spent 12 years with the military and had purchased a house with a VA home loan, but she fell behind on payments.

"When I got back from Iraq, I knew something was wrong," she said. Diagnosed with PTSD, she found herself awake at night devising ways to keep her family safe. "I decided to move the refrigerator in front of the door to bunker us in," she said. "Then I would stay up all night baking cookies because I didn't want to go to sleep. Eventually, I stopped leaving the house altogether."

Moss lost her job and her income, and the bank foreclosed on her home.

She moved her two kids between temporary housing units and hotels until her PTSD was under control. Now, she has a temporary house for her family, and a full-time job at the VA. "It's because of my kids that I go to therapy and take my medication. If it wasn't for them, I don't know what would happen," she said.

Other veterans are not so lucky. McKeen was exposed to more than 300 bomb blasts in Iraq. He suffers from traumatic brain injury as well as PTSD. When he returned home, he slept on couches at friends' houses, and in his car while looking for a job. He spent many nights wandering the streets before he ended up in a shelter.

"It's like a culture shock returning home, but you are supposed to be used to it," he said. "Unless you are in war, nobody can understand what it's like. And they expect you to just function normally by yourself after that?"

The Department of Veterans Affairs estimates about 2,000 war on terrorism veterans have become homeless upon returning to the United States. It's still a small number, when compared to the staggering numbers of homeless Vietnam War-era veterans, but one that could balloon in the coming months.

At the Palo Alto VA, the inpatient programs for PTSD and TBI are crowded with war on terrorism veterans - an indication that a large number are at risk for homelessness, according to director of homeless programs Keith Harris.

"Before it gets to the point where someone is living on the street, what they are typically doing is struggling with a mental health disorder, burning their bridges with the people around them, family, employers, spouses," he said. " I don't believe there is a large chunk of returnees literally homeless without a roof over their heads, but I think a large chunk of them are at risk for it."

The homeless shelter at the Palo Alto VA is full. And many veterans still complain that the VA is unprepared and overly bureaucratic. Most have to wait six to eight months for claims to be addressed.

But by all accounts, the VA is far better prepared this time than it ever has been in the past. With an understanding that the looming homeless crisis is best treated as a mental health issue, it has hired 17,000 mental health workers, making it the largest mental health program in the country.

But with some 2 million active service members still fighting and undergoing the trauma of war, Moss wonders if any amount of preparation by the VA can address the fundamental problem of readjustment.

"I think the problem is war itself," she said. "War changes a person. I talk to all vets. The same experiences we had coming home from Iraq are the same experience World War II (vets) saw, Vietnam saw, Korean War saw, so it hasn't changed. I think the real problem is probably just war itself."

Anna Sussman is a journalist who has reported from the United States, Africa and Asia. To comment, e-mail forum@sfchronicle. com.