Military Officer - August 2008 - (Page 14)

yourviews MILIT ARY JUNE 2008 $4.50 THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF MOAA | ONE POWERFUL VOICE® W W W. M O A A . O R G OFFICER Making Waves Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Thad W. Allen is on a mission to modernize 54 10.6% CUT COMING? July 1 deadline looms for Medicare/TRICARE payments 33 WORLD WAR WEB Has the Internet become our Achilles’ heel? 60 PLUS: Learn to stay fit and fight infection 65 June cover.indd 1 “Our country must adequately fund the Coast Guard so [it] can continue to be semper paratus.” —CWO3 David Ponstein, USCG-Ret. Semper Paratus I could not be more proud of today’s Coast Guard men and women [“Mission to Modernize,” June 2008]. It goes without saying that taking into account the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001, and the aftermath, they have been tasked with vastly increased missions and responsibilities. Add in the Hurricane Katrina and Gulf Coast disasters, and you have a service that has been stretched to and probably beyond [its] capabilities. Yet, the Coast Guard took the bull by the horns … and got the job done in a ﬁrst-rate manner. They didn’t stand around and wait to be told what to do, they knew what had to be done … and they did it. Perform the mission, sort out the paperwork later. I can’t even begin to imagine how many lives would have been lost had the Coast Guard not been there. I believe that in far too many years that have passed, the true needs of the Coast Guard have gone very 14 MILITARY OFFICER AUGUST 2008 underappreciated and extremely underfunded at many levels of government. … Our country must adequately fund the Coast Guard so [it] can continue to be semper paratus [always prepared]. I certainly hope and pray that [Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Thad W.] Allen gets the support he needs to continue to modernize our Coast Guard. —CWO3 David Ponstein, USCG-Ret. via e-mail 5/8/08 8:17:07 PM Prescription for PTSD MOAA joined RAND Corp. in recommending increased in-house and external health care capacity to help a growing number of servicemembers and veterans deal with PTSD [“Mental Health Care Shortfall,” “Washington Scene,” June 2008]. As a career Army clinical social work [Medical Service Corps] ofﬁcer, ex-Pentagon behavioral science consultant and action ofﬁcer during the Vietnam era, and emeritus mental health practitioner and educator, I have a few caveats. First, PTSD is a family affair. … The impact of this illness on family members needs to be kept in mind. Providing counseling for them must be part of budget allocations as a direct beneﬁt to servicemembers. Second, counseling skills are not enough. … We must take time to train counselors to consider the military environment, culture, and family lifestyle as essential factors in treatment. Understanding the stress of the combat experience is improved when counselors are able to identify with, for example, the military’s role in implementing national policy without question, the intense group loyalty one has toward comrades, and the pride felt in completing the mission. Third, increasing health care capacity won’t cut it. … RAND’s study found that only 50 percent of those with PTSD sought help, with some fearing it would impair their careers. Treatment was often late, and then only 25 percent felt they improved. [The RAND study] concluded that, “addressing personal attitudes of servicemembers about the use of mental health services, although important, is not likely to be sufﬁcient if the institutional barriers remain in place.” The most obvious barrier that must change is the military regulation that speciﬁcally prohibits awarding the Purple Heart to combat servicemembers suffering from PTSD as a legitimate war injury in itself. … It is unrealistic to expect servicemembers to seek help for PTSD in the face of attitudes that discourage and stigmatize their efforts without changing the very barriers that support and contribute to those attitudes. —Lt. Col. Frank F. Montalvo, USA-Ret. San Antonio Filipino Scout Benefits [MOAA] might want to reconsider [its] position on opposing [compen- http://staging.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/moaa/mo0608/?startid=54 http://staging.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/moaa/mo0608/?startid=54 http://staging.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/moaa/mo0608/?startid=44 http://staging.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/moaa/mo0608/?startid=44

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Military Officer - August 2008

Military Officer - August 2008 Contents MOAA Online From the Editor From the President Your Views MOAA Directory Rapid Fire Washington Scene Chapters in Action Financial Forum Ask the Doctor MOAA Member Services Cover Story: A Stronger Voice Virtual Combat Mental Floss Steady as She Goes Pages of History Faces of MOAA Member Books Information Exchange Advertising Index MOAA Calendar Sounding Taps MOAA Scholarship Donors Encore

Military Officer - August 2008

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