Service. Sacrifice. Honor.

   On Monday, all across this country, Americans will take a moment to remember those who have done so much to allow our freedoms. On this day, we'll spend time with our families, join our communities in celebration and take time to remember what sometimes we all take so for granted in our everyday American lives.

   But each and every day, those who wear the uniform stand for their brothers and sisters who have given everything.

Society and the Soldier: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder – Part II

   Traumatic neurasthenia. Railway spine. War syndrome. Gross stress reaction. Old sergeant syndrome. Neurocirculatory asthenia. Vietnam disease. Cerebro-medullary shock. Simple continued fever. Disordered action of the heart. Buck fever. Swiss disease...

Society and the Soldier: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder – Part I

Hurricane Katrina ravages the Gulf Coast in 2005 while an earthquake savages Pakistan, India and Afghanistan. In 2004, a crushing tsunami rises out of the Indian Ocean. A terrorist attack paralyzes a nation on a mid-September morning in 2001. Every two minutes, an American is raped. Over six million are involved in car accidents annually. One to three million are victims of domestic violence in our country every year. And then there are those who are sent to combat. All are susceptible to something we call PTSD: post-traumatic stress disorder.

CCN Series Blog

Purple Hearts – Helping Hands

Troops and Vets

Sugar Hill, New Hampshire, is a community of 600. The town may be small but it’s heart is large. The town’s police chief, Jose Pequeno, was a personable and well-liked member of the community. Besides giving warnings for speeding, he helped residents recall their home alarm codes, helped corral loose livestock and welcomed the children who liked to drop by his office to chat. A National Guardsman and former Marine, he was deployed to Iraq in 2005.

CCN Series Blog

Purple Hearts - Broken Brains

The Families

CCN Series Blog

Purple Hearts - Broken Brains

Troops and Vets

UPDATE: Be sure to visit Paul Rieckhoff's Blog at the Huffington Post entitled "Adding Insult To Injury"

“The PURPLE HEART is awarded to members of the armed forces of the U.S. who are wounded by an instrument of war in the hands of the enemy and posthumously to the next of kin in the name of those who are killed in action or die of wounds received in action. It is specifically a combat decoration."

At the Polytrauma Unit of the VA medical center in Palo Alto, we meet four patients who are working to put their lives back together. (1)

Jay struggles to pick up a paper clip. His responses and speech are slowed; he cries easily.

CCN Series Blog

Purple Hearts - Broken Bodies

Troops and Vets

“The PURPLE HEART is awarded to members of the armed forces of the U.S. who are wounded by an instrument of war in the hands of the enemy and posthumously to the next of kin in the name of those who are killed in action or die of wounds received in action. It is specifically a combat decoration."
www.purpleheart.org

Operation Helmet

Memorial Day - A National Moment of Remembrance

"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional as to how they perceive veterans of earlier wars and how they were treated and appreciated by this country"
--George Washington 1787

Today's soldiers are tomorrow's veterans. I share a common bond of service with every veteran and I will never leave behind a fellow soldier. There is no reason this country can't do a better job taking care of its current and future veterans. --- Wes Clark