...Disorder Necessary Improvements the United States Department of Veterans Affairs and United States Department of Defense Must Make Abstract Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a mental anxiety disorder, affects 13% to 20% of armed force members returning from Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) (Hoge, et. al, 2004), in addition to a large population of Vietnam Veterans. Within the past 32 years, awareness of this disorder has escalated and the realism of the severity of this disorder has been noticed. Efforts to screen and treat PTSD in military veterans have been established by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Screening is conducted once military personnel return from deployment and treatments including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, Exposure Therapy, and medications are used to relieve the symptoms of PTSD. These screening and treatment methods are evaluated and s suggestion for improvement is made. Necessary Improvements the United States Department of Veterans Affairs and the United States Department of Defense Must Make With Regards to Posttraumatic Stress Disorder In current political debate, the United States is arguing where budget cuts should be made and how the U.S. should go about spending money. The U.S. military is consistently brought up in these considerations. In such considerations, topics such as downsizing the military and the military’s budget overall...
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...Suicides in the Military Over the Past 10 Years The most common myths about suicide in the military have changed since the events of September 11, 2001. Previously, it was a white male, between the age of 18-25, with one or more of the following factors: relationship issues, money problems, and job satisfaction. Since the war in Afghanistan stared on Sep 13, 2001, the age has increased from 25 to 44, race does not necessarily matter anymore, and add the pressures of not knowing what is going to happen and always wondering when/if “your time is up”. Along with this, add in the stress of preparing for your deployment, the stress of leaving your family, the stress of ensuring everyone is properly taken care of if the inevitable happens, and the stress of possibly, or actually, losing subordinates or friends to enemy gunfire or Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), just to name a few. More males over the age of 30, who have had at least one deployment to Afghanistan or Iraq and have seen some heavy fighting or have lost friends to enemy mortars/rockets on main operating bases, have committed or attempted to commit suicide in the past five years, then ever before. After all the stress of combat, coming home to a life of no danger of snipers or IEDs, mortar/rocket attacks to your base, causes even more stress then people can even imagine. “Flashbacks”, hyper-vigilance, suspicion, and the fear of loud noises are also a major concern and cause undue stress to the sevicemember...
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...I. Introduction A. Preparing for a military deployment can be hectic and stressful. A prolonged separation from friends and family isn't easy to handle. On top of the emotional concerns a service member must contend with, are the soldier’s financial needs. While deployed, military personnel are still responsible for financial commitments back home. This can include everything from rental or mortgage payments to credit card debt to utilities. If the service member doesn't plan for these commitments, he or she could accrue significant debt while away from home. B. service members suffer through post-deployment financial hardship due to poor pre-deployment financial planning and preparation. C. In this speech I’m going to: 1. Identify the problem 2. Point out the cause 3. Discuss the solution II. Body of speech A. Soldiers comes home from a deployment only to find themselves in significant debt that has accumulated while they were away. 1. In the United States, the government provides limited financial protection to members of the military who are on active duty. But in many cases, service members need to be aware of these protections to take advantage of them. Whether you have a wide network of friends and family members to help you maintain your finances while you're gone or even if you just have a few trusted people close to you, you need to put some thought into your finances before leaving. 2. Most of the young soldiers put their trust...
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...Growing up in a civilian family as a child and transitioning into a military family as a wife was not an easy task. I was faced with problems that interfered with my job, health benefits, and education. Growing up a civilian child and now having to raise military children has many differences and various issues arising. While both civilian and military families both face the overall issue of raising a family, there are many similarities and differences in jobs, income, and overall impact of these different lifestyles. In regards to life at home and different benefits that families require to survive, there are many differences in the homes of a civilian family verses a military family. Civilian families usually have "normal" home lives that consist of two parents present and a stable living situation. These parents usually work jobs where they are gone during the day but home for dinner every night. "In 1998, there were over 30 million dual-earner households" meaning both parents go to work every day (Clarkberg, np). Sometimes the jobs worked by parents include benefits such as health and life insurance, but many civilian families are forced to purchase these necessities on their own. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics "employer-provided medical care was available to 85 percent of full-time private industry workers...[but] only 24 percent of part-time workers had medical care benefits available" (BLS, np). Civilian families with careers that offer benefits are...
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...Military Families Many citizens of the United States join the military to serve their country. A person that is in the military can be deployed all around the world. They could be on deployment for a few months or a few years. Some leave their wife, husband, or children behind for work. Others take their family along for the deployment. Military children live a completely different lifestyle than the average kid. Growing up as a military child there are many advantages and disadvantages. Military children are at a disadvantage compared to the standard child due to the lack of consistency in their life and are more likely to be involved in more fights.. A military family that travels with the parent on deployment gains the advantage to see more of the world. A...
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...has affected our Military! Yolanda Vaughters MSL 5200 Crisis Communication Since the year 2000, the United States of America had been hit with some major crisis that seriously affected the military. The attack on September 11, 2001, has changed the lives of people around the world especially our military in which thousands of lives has been lost or affected by the War on Terrorism. The terrorist attack on September 11, 2001 that hit the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York, the Department of Defense (Pentagon) in Arlington, Virginia, and Shanksville, Pennsylvania led to the Global War on Terrorism. The Global War on Terrorism and the invading into Iraq for weapons of mass destruction led to a major change in the military. The United States military have been fighting two wars for the last decade: Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom in Iraq. On September 11, 2001 around 8:45 Tower 1 was hit by American Airlines, Flight 11 out of Boston, Massachusetts and United Airlines, Flight 175 hit Tower 2 at exactly 9:03 which both buildings collapsed. (Giuliani 2002) The location of where the Towers collapse became to be known as Ground Zero. Over thousands of police officers, fire men, volunteers, and the National Guard patrol the streets of New York helping with the recovery. That day as a result of this evil attack on the United States about 3,500 people...
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...The United States is one of the newest countries but has also being a very competitive growing country to those around the world. Thinking in terms of employment, one thinks of jobs like fast food, factory, or law enforcement but there is also one that many don’t think of are the member of the Military. The Military has many different branches and with in those branches there is the active and reserve. One branch, the Army, has a National Guard side where the Soldiers are considered civilian guardsmen. The National Guardsman is members of the Army National Guard who meet once a month and two weeks out of the year to train on their duties. In the recent years there has been many conflicts which the United States has been apart of, supporter of, or the major contributing party to the solution of the conflict. A person gets deployed to a conflict and when their mission is over, they become a Veteran. Deployments can last from three months up to one year long depending on many aspects on the mission. Members of all branches of the military who are returning from a deployment are veterans and experience an environment that most are not used to. As well as the long break in service from the civilian life also plays a role in the reintegration back in to the social society setting. In the more modern day life in the military orients many people to being Veterans of the multiple tours to the various areas of the world. This has presented the United States with a challenge with the continuation...
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...iTHE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS Module prepared for CIAO By Richard Ned Lebow August 2000 The Cuban missile crisis of October 1962 is generally regarded as the most serious military confrontation of the Cold War. American destroyers deployed along a picket line to intercept Soviet ships transporting missiles and nuclear warheads to Cuba while American air, ground and naval forces prepared for air strikes against Soviet missile sites under construction in Cuba and a follow-up invasion. The Strategic Air Command was put on an unprecedented state of alert – “DEFCON II,” only one step away from “war is imminent.” On Saturday morning,October 27, President Kennedy and his advisors were pessimistic about their ability to preserve the peace. Robert Kennedy, the President’s brother and Attorney General of the U.S., had “the feeling that the noose was tightening on all of us, on Americans, on mankind, and that the bridges to escape were crumbling.”1 In Moscow, the tension was “phenomenal.” On Sunday morning, General Secretary Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev and his advisors worried “that Kennedy intended to declare war, to launch an attack” against the Soviet Union.2 That same day, the two leaders reached an accommodation that, in retrospect, turned out to be one of the key turning points of the Cold War. 1 OVERVIEW The “Caribbean crisis,” as it was known in the former Soviet Union, was attributed to the Kennedy administration’s unwillingness to accept the status quo in Cuba. Unalterably...
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...Hailey Wagner Summer 2014 AP United States Government & Politics Budris 2014 Summer Assignment Part B- Military thwarted president seeking choice in Afghanistan Essay In his article entitled Military thwarted president seeking choice in Afghanistan, Bob Woodward depicts the decision making process President Obama endured when it came to military actions regarding the movement of additional troops into Afghanistan in 2009. Through his account of the events which occurred, the reader is offered great insight as to what the most important factors were to Obama as he made his decision concerning foreign policy in Afghanistan, his management style while dealing with this military matter, and the powers of the Commander...
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...The United States military is still in transition of how it handles its female Soldiers in regards to pregnancy. Is it far to place restrictions on this private matter? Can the rules and regulations imposed be seen as sexist and gender specific? I will attempt to discuss these utilitarian and deontological considerations. From a utilitarian aspect it is deemed necessary to control female pregnancies especially with upcoming deployments. The military is facing a shortage of Soldiers across the board. A rising trend is developing of Female Soldiers purposely getting pregnant before deployment in order to avoid going overseas. Another issue is female Soldiers becoming pregnant while in Iraq or Afghanistan. It is important to maintain morale and keep Soldiers in the mind frame that deployment is necessary and part of our duty as Soldiers. Depending on the job, most military professions have a higher percentage of males than females. From a utilitarian view, I believe it is necessary to mediate female Soldiers pregnancies while our Nation is at war. The greater good would be for females not to become pregnant a couple of months before deployment purposely. More importantly, female Soldiers should not get pregnant while deployed. Female Soldiers often hold critical positions that the military depends on for successful operations in executing missions. When a female gets pregnant after attending certain qualifications and other training puts that unit in a terrible disposition...
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...superpowers of the world, the United States and the Soviet Union. The discussions and negotiations on the various issues that directly or indirectly affected the crisis will be evaluated in detail in the discussion section; but it should primarily be said that the crisis period was very dense and it longed only 13 days. The negotiating styles, interests and communication efficiency of the parties that are concerned, were well enough to reach a wise agreement in a very short time relative to the conflict. All the parties’ interests, even the ones which demanded by the indirectly affected parties; such as Turkey, were taken into consideration; and a resolution that pleased almost every sides of the crisis. Avoiding a world war, which would possibly include nuclear weapons, is a fact that will show the succession of the negotiations during the crisis. Discussion There are several parties that concerned by the Cuban Missile Crisis directly or indirectly. The significant ones are the United States and the Soviet Union which were directly involved in the crisis and actively participated in the negotiations. Additionally, Cuba and Turkey concerned by the crisis because of their role of holding the missiles of the Soviet Union and the United States in their own soil; and Germany was indirectly concerned because of the possible attack of the USSR to Berlin (1). At the outbreak of the crisis, the most important and deterministic positions were the United States’ and the Soviet Union’s ones...
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...and the International Monetary Fund Collective security: The idea that an attack on one country is an attack on all the countries Containment: U.S policy of opposing Soviet expansion and communist revolutions around the world with military forces, economic assistance, and political influence Cuban Missile Crisis: the 1962 confrontation over the deployment of ballistic missiles in Cuba that nearly escalated into nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union Defense policy: area of policy making that focuses on the strategies that a country uses to protect itself from its enemies Democratic enlargement: policy implemented during the Clinton administration in which the United States would actively promote the expansion of democracy and free markets throughout the world Department of Defense: chief executive branch department responsible for formulation and implementation of U.S defense and military policy Department of Homeland Security: cabinet department created after the 9/11 terrorist attacks to coordinate domestic security efforts Department of state: chief executive branch department responsible for formulation and implementation of U.S foreign policy Détente: the improvement in relations between the United States and the Soviet Union that occurred during the 1970s European Union: an organization that joins 27 countries in Europe into a union that includes free trade, a central bank, a common currency, ease of immigration, a European Parliament...
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...came to the realization that there is a serious on going distribution and deployment problem within the United States military. The military seems to be operating under the system justification theory which essentially says to do things the same because that’s how it has always been done. Unfortunately, that doesn’t work in today’s America. Being able to adapt and become diverse has become a key part of our new world where diversity is now the “in-group” and any other belief is the “out-group”. In this current case, the personnel selected were non-Spanish speaking Americans given instructions to deploy to Nicaragua to solve the cross-cultural competence incidents between the United States and Honduran militaries. I do not believe that the United States military made the appropriate decision by sending to English-speaking officers to train the Hondurans because of the language barrier presented. I believe that there are alternative solutions that U.S. government could have made and I will now go into those. The first alternative solution I came up with was that the United States could have done more due diligence and been able to find a trustworthy Honduran representative who spoke both English and Spanish fluently and used that person as an interpreter. This solution would have been beneficial for both parties. It would have allowed for the U.S. to keep their man in charge of overseeing the deployment while allowing for the Hondurans to learn the appropriate protocol in their...
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...business that has an employee who is also a uniformed service member, there will be a time when that service member is either called to their annual two-week training or there could be a possibility where they may be directed to deploy in-country or overseas during periods lasting from three months to over a year. In these situations, the employer needs to know that the military member has rights that protect various aspects of their employment and that these rights are outlined by the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA). USERRA is a federal law monitored by the Department of Labor, whose website states that the purpose of the law is to ensure that persons who serve or have served in the Armed Forces, Reserves, National Guard or other uniformed services: (1) are not disadvantaged in their civilian careers because of their service; (2) are promptly reemployed in their civilian jobs upon their return from duty; and (3) are not discriminated against in employment based on past, present, or future military service. The law is intended to encourage uniformed service so that the United States can enjoy the protection of those services, staffed by qualified people, while maintaining a balance with the needs of private and public employers who also depend on these same individuals. Per the Department of Labor website,...
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...Effects of Military Service on Children and Families Abstract When a service member is deployed or sent on a tour, this has a drastic change in the life of the service member’s family especially the children. Being the family of a military service member is already a difficult and complex lifestyle; deployments don’t make it any easier. Military deployment is a unique experience affecting both service members who make sacrifices for our country, and the loved ones who await their return. The potential for deployment is a constant reality. Today’s military deployments may occur in rapid succession and be extended. Therefore, military personnel and their families must always be deployment-ready. Deployments are not easy and can create significant stress for U.S. military men and women and their families. In many cases deployments cans create problems in families. It can contribute to marital problems, family dysfunction, and emotional or behavioral disturbance in spouses and children. The primary purpose of this research paper is to describe the effects of military deployments on a families and children. This paper will discuss the effects and they type of effects the military families and children are faced with. “Deployments in the United States have increased greatly in the past 10 years. Families and children are psychiatrically affected by these deployments and recent studies are clarifying these effects.” (James 2012, p.16) Deployments in military service...
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