Shad says it hits some people a year, a year and a half, later. You realize that you are acting on emotional triggers rather than considering the consequences first. more

When I arrived in Vietnam in 1967, I was attached to a psych unit named by a couple of Latin scholars Pax Mentis: Peace of Mind. I’ve kept that as my sign-off, motto and mission all these years. Recently I’ve been thinking about the vets that manage to achieve this, and wondering just what allows that to happen. more

Last week, I gave a keynote address at a veteran career fair here in Los Angeles. The goal of the event, hosted by the Farmer-Veteran Coalition, was to bring together Veterans looking for work with businesses and schools involved in bringing food from farm and field to table. more

An article in the Great Falls Tribune this week caught my attention. By Tom Spoth of the Air Force Times, the piece reported that the suicide rate among Air Force personnel had risen 37% since 2007. The Air Force has had 11 suicides so far this year, just through the middle of March. more

Due to a three-year-old Supreme Court decision’s unintended consequences, those Vets who are most deserving of healthcare and disability benefits are the ones most likely to be denied those benefits, due to missed deadlines and paperwork errors. more

There have been some promising recent steps taken by the VA recently, to help these Vets apply for and receive their benefits. One of those steps is that the VA announced last week it would automate part of the Agent Orange claim process that has had thousands of Veterans waiting months or years for benefits. more

I started working with soldiers suffering from PTSD during the Vietnam War. Those men and women were mostly a draft military with shorter deployments, and much was still unknown about post-traumatic stress. Today, troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan are all-volunteer, and we know much more about the causes and treatment of war-related psychological problems. more