Profile: America’s Wars and the Veterans who served in them

Today, we honor the men and women who have fought under America's flag. Veterans Day marks a historic armistice and salutes all U.S. veterans, many of whom served during our country's wars and conflicts.

VIETNAM WAR

The communist leader of Vietnam sought to claim control of South Vietnam, a move the United States fought to prevent. (Who was the U.S. president?) The war was met with much protest in the States. (Who was the U.S. commander?)

Although the dates and scope are debatable, historians consider the Vietnam War one of America's longest and costliest.

(How long did the war last?) More Vietnam War facts: Number of Americans who served, American casualties, Total casualties, How did it end?, Veterans today

GO HERE TO VIEW THE REST OF THE WARS.

Veterans Day: Rifle squad honors vets with 57,000 goodbyes

The volunteer squad ensures veterans get a proper final salute

“The bus stops on the cemetery path and the silver-haired men file out, sober-faced and silent amid a sea of white marble tombstones. Some carry rifles, some flags, a few hold bugles. They've all come to say goodbye — to a stranger.

This is their eighth funeral of the day. They have five more to go.

The men are members of a special fraternity of veterans. Two generations. Three wars. Survivors of places such as Khe Sanh, Chu Lai, Tokyo Bay, the Chosin Reservoir. Recipients of Purple Hearts and Bronze Stars. Now all together, offering a final salute to those who, like them, served long ago.”

PHOTO - Jim McGee, a member of the Fort Snelling Memorial Rifle Squad, salutes during a veteran's funeral at Fort Snelling National Cemetery in Bloomington, Minn

Corpses and coffins? FDA proposes graphic cigarette labels

The best thing I ever did for my health was quit smoking in 2000.

The feds are gung ho with their new initiative to reduce smoking

“The federal government hopes new larger, graphic warning labels for cigarettes that include images of corpses, cancer patients, and diseased lungs and teeth will help snuff out tobacco use.

The images are part of a new push announced by the Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services on Wednesday to reduce tobacco use, which is responsible for about 443,000 deaths per year.”

Read more here.

Koch Industries: Bankrolling the Big Oil climate denial movement

Koch Industries spent more than $1 million trying to sabotage California's clean energy future with Proposition 23 -- but you've probably never even heard their name before.
As co-owner David Koch brags, Koch Industries is "the largest company that you've never heard of."
Koch has been very effective in spending tens of millions to bankroll the climate denial movement -- and until recently, they've stayed out of the headlines.

But now you should know the threat they pose to our planet.
Check out the facts on Koch Industries and share them with your friends and family.

It's time to shine a spotlight on this shadowy corporation. America needs to know that Koch Industries spends millions of dollars each year to misrepresent the science of climate change, lobby against clean energy legislation and keep us addicted to fossil fuels.

The web of funding from Koch Industries to climate denialists, anti-regulation think tanks and oil industry front groups is so complicated that we've made this site to share some of their worst offenses:
www.KochIndustriesFacts.com
Until now, the misdeeds of this key player in the oil sector have remained a secret. Now you know. What you do about it is your own business. Pass this information on or ignore it. At least you’re aware of it now.

image source

Omega the Chimp stops smoking but continues eating magic mushrooms every day!

Omega the smoking Chimp kicks the habit with a little help from friends.

At one time Omega the Chimp packed hookas for people until he pissed the management off and they sold him.

He was sold to someone in Beirut who kept him in a tiny cage and provided him with cigarettes and magic mushrooms. I can’t imagine Omega’s state of mind. He’s been “rescued” by some folks who took him to a sanctuary in Brazil where they proceeded to get him to stop smoking. The mushrooms however, appear to be another story!

Cover-up revealed: White House altered report justifying drilling ban

This news comes as no surprise to me. The cover-up involving the Deepwater Horizon goes deep. There was complicity at all levels – BP, Halliburton, and the US government. Big Oil rules this country. It’s as simple as that. 

Inspector general finds it was altered to imply it was peer reviewed

“An inspector general says the White House edited a report about the administration's moratorium on offshore drilling to make it appear that scientists and experts supported the idea of a six-month ban on new drilling.”

1st Stand Down Revisted : Hope in Helping Others, the message stays the same this Veterans Day

Editor’s Note:

The following article was written during the 1st Stand Down held in Ferndale (2004). I’m reproducing it here because the web site that carries it year-round, VA Watch Dog Dot Org, is shutting down. It’s founder, a great veteran’s activist, Larry Scott, is dealing with health issues and cannot continue keeping his informative blog up any longer.

Photo: Dave and Shirley Stancliff stocking food to take to the Stand Down.

By Thadeus Greenson/The Times-Standard

Dave Stancliff's adult life can, in many ways, be broken into two parts: two years of military service and more than 30 years of pain.
Unlike some war veterans, whose wounds can be seen in the form of missing limbs and shrapnel injuries, Stancliff's wounds are less visible and more elusive, but no less painful. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) has wreaked havoc on Stancliff's life, manifesting itself in the form of panic attacks, flashbacks, agoraphobia, nightmares and a general distrust of humanity.
For Stancliff, a light is emerging at the end of a long tunnel and, through helping others, he is beginning to help himself. Working with the inaugural North Coast Stand Down -- an outreach program for local veterans taking place this weekend at the Humboldt County Fairgrounds in Ferndale -- Stancliff is realizing he is not alone and, in fact, his story has universal themes that are all too common. Meanwhile, the local community is showing its support for those in Stancliff's shoes by firmly standing behind the event.
Stancliff's pain is one that is hard for most non-veterans to understand. It's the pain of seeing one of his best friends killed in an ambush in Cambodia. It's the pain of witnessing carnage so savage that movies and stories can't capture it. But, perhaps most of all, it's the pain of being abandoned.
After serving in Vietnam, Stancliff returned to the United States not to a parade or a sea of understanding, but to anger pointed directly at him. He was spit on, he said, and called a baby killer.

Haunted by the hatred he felt and the carnage he witnessed, Stancliff tried to go on with life the best he could. He went to Humboldt State University and became a newspaper editor. Things seemed OK, but never good, until 1991 when he was the managing editor of five weekly papers in Southern California.
”After the Gulf War in 1991, something snapped,” Stancliff said, adding that the sight of parades welcoming troops home, in contrast to his own homecoming, was too much for him to handle.
”I was pissed at the world,” he recalled. “I couldn't even deal with my editors and writers anymore.”
Consumed by an anger he couldn't explain, Stancliff returned to Humboldt County and, in his own words, became somewhat of a hermit.
Senqi Hu, chairman of the Humboldt State University psychology department, said this is a common story. He said PTSD is a response to traumatic events like natural disasters, sexual assault and, in veterans' cases, combat.
”After a disastrous event, people develop chronic, long-term psychological distress, depression for example, chronic fear and anxiety, and sometimes mental dysfunction,” Hu said. “Symptoms often include recurrent and intrusive memories of the traumatic event, recurrent distressing dreams that replay the event and extreme psychological and physiological distress.”

In Stancliff's case, this meant rarely leaving the house, preferring to remain in surroundings that he could control. He couldn't work, couldn't take his wife, Shirley, out to dinner and he could not bring himself to attend his three sons' high school graduations.
”I can't say how bad I felt,” he said.
Though he has spent years in therapy, Stancliff has just recently begun to come out of his shell, as he put it. About a year and a half ago, Stancliff's brother died and something inside told the veteran that he needed to make a change.
A short time later, Stancliff placed a call to the local veterans center and asked what he could do to help.
It just happened that plans were in the works to hold a Stand Down, a massive outreach event to link up veterans with social services to improve their lives -- from legal and psychiatric advice to help with housing and medical aid. According to the event's Web site ( http://www.vietvets.org/ncsd/ ), “the term 'stand down' is a military one that is used when combat troops are pulled out of action, and sent to an area of relative safety to get medical attention, clothing and other supplies.”

With his background in the newspaper business and his personal battle with PTSD, Stancliff seemed a perfect fit to be the event's public affairs coordinator.
”I feel that God has really worked me into this position,” Stancliff said. “It's therapeutic, the idea of getting outside yourself and helping others. It's been stressful, I won't lie to you, but the bottom line is I'm doing something I never thought I would be able to do.”
Stand Down Director Carl Young understands Stancliff's fight, because in many ways it is similar to his own.
After leaving Vietnam in 1974, where he served in the Navy, Young arrived in his hometown of Santa Cruz dressed in a pearly white uniform and was in no way prepared for the reception he received.
”I got off the Greyhound bus and had a gal run up to me and spit on me and call me a baby killer,” Young said, adding that the experience was enough for him to fall into a six-month bout of depression.
Young has also found solace in helping others. He helped organize the first Stand Down in the north San Francisco Bay Area and, after moving to Fortuna a year and a half ago, jumped on board planning the first Stand Down in Humboldt County.

Also living with PTSD, Young said he deals with his issues, in a large part, through writing and helping others by organizing Stand Downs, which were nowhere to be found when he returned home from Vietnam.
He still marvels at how a Stand Down could have changed his life.
”I would have found out that a lot of other people had similar experiences and there were a lot of positive things out there,” he said. “I would have been able to turn around a lot of things with my life.”
Both Stancliff and Young said they feel this is a critical time for outreach because they know the statistics.
They know that, according to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, 200,000 of the nation's veterans don't have a house to sleep in on any given night, even though 89 percent of them received honorable discharges from the military. They know that, according to the 2000 U.S. Census, there are more than 14,000 veterans in Humboldt County. They also know that every day troops are returning home from Afghanistan and Iraq with the scars of war.
According to a 2003 study in the New England Journal of Medicine, about 17 percent of soldiers returning from Iraq come home with PTSD. Stancliff and Young said they have heard about studies, some by the Defense Department, that put that number closer to 30 percent.

Hu warned that even those numbers are flawed, since many returning soldiers don't seek help, pre- ferring to keep their problems to themselves, and thus don't show up in surveys and studies. Hu added that it is important for people with PTSD to get professional treatment as soon after the traumatic experience as possible because it increases the success rates of treatment.
”With the help of psychologists, they can talk about the issues and the psychologist can guide them to a new way of thinking,” he said. “That's why psychological treatment is so important.”
Young said this is an urgent community issue affecting many aspects of society.
”There's a real need to come to the forefront on this because the government isn't going to,” Young said. “I really feel that doing these stand downs, and outreach in general, should be a national priority.”
Judging from the response to the North Coast Stand Down, many locals seem to agree.

Mary Vellutini, who owns the Vellutini Baking Co. in Eureka, has a World War II veteran father and a son currently serving overseas. She jumped at the chance to do something to help out, and her baking company is donating 3,200 cookies to the event.
”Being a small business, we can't give financially as much as we would like, but we can give products,” she said. “We can give cookies.”
She said helping was kind of a non-decision.
”You want to help because everyone is someone's son or brother or father,” Vellutini said. “It's just important to acknowledge what they do. There aren't enough heroes in the world. I don't even know how to put it into words.”
Shirley Stancliff, who recently agreed to be the event's food coordinator, said the outpouring of community support has been both unbelievable and heartwarming. With a host of donations from local businesses and community members, coupled with a large, private donation from Esther Phelps of Ferndale, Shirley Stancliff has compiled enough food to feed 400 people three meals a day for the entire weekend.
She said a donation by the Humboldt County Cattlewomen's Association of $350 worth of tri-tip, coupled with the grilling services volunteered by Rob Dunn of McKinleyville's farmers market fame, will give veterans a special Sunday treat.

”It's awesome to offer these vets the opportunity to have the kind of food they might not have otherwise just to make it special for them,” she said. “I want them to know they're honored and respected.”
Though the community's support brings a smile to Shirley Stancliff's face, nothing makes her happier than seeing her husband out in the world again.
”It's just awesome seeing him do this,” she said after spending hours shopping with him recently at Costco. Despite breaking out in a sweat, Dave Stancliff made it through the shopping trip, hurdling personal demons on his way to helping others fight the same battle he confronts daily.
He said he takes things day to day. He still takes sleeping pills to block out the nightmares, struggles to forget while still remembering, and he still likes to sit with his back to the wall in public places to make sure nobody is coming up from behind. He has hope, though, which wasn't always the case -- hope for himself, for others and for his country.
”These guys have no hope and think their lives are gone, and it's not true,” Dave Stancliff said of some of his fellow veterans. “Give them a hand up, not a hand-out, that's our motto. This is an example of taking care of our own. I can't change everything everywhere else, but we can all make a difference right here where we live. If we serve one person and change their life, (the event) will be a success.”

A mystery 'missile' or contrail? Authorities acting baffled

I honestly don’t know what to think about this development. One wag commented that it was probably the cartels testing new weapons. The Pentagon is doing it’s Alfred E. Newman “What Me Worry?” imitation. All really interesting stuff, don’t you think?

View this and share what you think on comments below

Here’s a shout out to Tom Sebourn: “Contrails? What do you think it was?”

The Pentagon says it's baffled, but scientists suggest it's just a jetliner with spectacular contrail

Tug boats, USS Ronald Reagan to assist disabled cruise liner

Engine-room fire leaves Carnival Splendor without air conditioning, hot food, phone service

My youngest son just returned from a cruise aboard The Liberty (sister ship to this one). My wife, who really wants to go on a week cruise, sighed when she heard the news, and said, “Now we’ll never go on an ocean cruise. You’re going to be paranoid about something like this happening.”

I have to admit that I hate being on boats and the idea of boarding and de-boarding with 4000 people at every port-of-call gives me stomach cramps! Too many people. Not wanting to be an old fart (even if I am one), I suggested she get a friend to go with her. She’s seriously considering the idea…

 

Twelve unorthodox but promising green technology innovations

 While politicians stumble to reach a consensus, researchers are pushing forward with new, if unusual, solutions.

From algae farms to wave energy, here are a dozen ecofriendly but odd ways to create clean energy. 

PHOTO - Don Long / Richmond Times Dispatch-AP

Inspirational Story: Boy’s $12 monster drawings help fund his chemo

 

Aidan Reed’s family has sold almost 2,500 silly, scary drawings to help offset expenses

Aidan Reed, 5, has always — always — loved monsters. Read his story here.

Hunt for value has taken stigma off Goodwill, store brands, fast food

If anything good has come from our Great Recession, it’s the fact that people are learning to become more frugal and to make do with less. 

“In the wake of the Great Recession, the stigma attached to certain consumer behavior has fallen away. What some people once thought of as lowbrow, they now accept — even consider a frugal badge of honor.”

PHOTO - The Paramus, N.J., store is one of 100 new locations for the nonprofit Goodwill. Many are in middle-class suburbs. The strategy: Attract not only people in need, but also the many Americans who are looking for more value.

Performance artists stage ‘Kaiju Big Battel’ for dedicated fans

Take Mexican Wrestling, add Japanese Monsters(!), mix in a lot of fun and you get Kaiju Big Battel (the misspelling is intentional, by the way).

The creation of Boston performance artists David Borden and Rand Borden, it's a chance for fans to root for everything from the heroic Atomic Trooper Robo to the nasty Call-Me-Kevin.

image credit: Brian McCarty, via)

(image credit: Studio Kaiju)

Fear doctors (mad scientists?) use tarantulas to terrify volunteers

When I was in grade school in La Puente my buddy and I use to catch tarantulas in the nearby hills. We poured water down a hole, they came up, and we scooped them into jars.

Then the fun really started. We’d  each take one to school with us and would release them in a classroom! Never got caught releasing them either. What an uproar they caused, especially with the girls!

I never considered tarantulas scary and would let them walk all over me to impress  friends (and foes). But it looks like a lot of people are afraid of the little guys as evidenced by this new story:

“To observe the brain’s panic-response network in full freak, British researchers asked 20 volunteers to lie inside a functional magnetic resonance imaging machine. One by one, the scientists then had each person view a screen that showed a tarantula crawling closer ... and ... closer to the subject’s feet.” Read the rest here.

As It Stands–I’m 60 now and damned surprised that I made it this far!

I have no words of wisdom to share. I’m not sure if I should celebrate or grieve. Reaching 60 – six decades – is a milestone of sorts. It’s not as impressive as 70, 80 , 90…or 100.

I can tell you for sure I never thought I’d live this long. Let’s just say I’ve faced a few challenges along the way, but who hasn’t eh? I think it’s fair to say I try to enjoy every day.

I’m incredibly blessed with family and friends who support and love me. I live with the love of my life, Shirley, who’s always been at my side and is my bride of 35 years. I’m proud of all three of my sons. I love my five grandchildren. I don’t take my friends for granted.

I lead a very quiet life by choice. My pug Millie and I walk every day. I spend at least three hours daily researching subjects for columns. I’m happy…and 60 today.

As It Stands: Today in retrospect: Set clock back, read this column

By Dave Stancliff/For the Times-Standard

Posted: 11/07/2010 01:22:00 AM PDT

Make sure to set your clock back one hour if you forgot last night. Daylight Saving Time ended at 2 a.m. this morning.

Today is a special day for a lot of reasons. Every day is special to me, but just for fun, let's start by looking at some people who were born on Nov. 7.

If it's your birthday today, then congratulations, and may you have many more.

Polish chemist and physicist Marie Sklodowska-Curie, the recipient of the Nobel Prize in physics and in chemistry, was born in 1867. Fiery Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky was born on this day in 1879. American evangelist Billy Graham was born in 1919.

Other Nove. 7 birthdays include Al Hirt, American trumpeter; King Kong Bundy, professional wrestler; Dana Plato, actress; Andy Houston, a NASCAR driver; and Dave Stancliff, newspaper columnist/blogger.

Next, let's look at some historic Nov. 7 dates, since you're still reading.

 * One of my favorite political wits is Thomas Nast, who drew the first cartoon depicting an elephant as the Republican Party's symbol on this day in 1874.

* The Wright Brothers and department store owner Max Moorehouse made the first air freight shipment (From Dayton, Ohio, to Columbus, Ohio) in 1910.

* Woodrow Wilson (D) was re-elected president with a campaign slogan of “He kept us out of war” in 1916.

* Women in the state of Colorado were granted the right to vote in 1893.

* Herbert Hoover easily won the Republican nomination, despite having no previous elected office experience, in 1928.

* The first broadcast of “Buck Rogers in the 25th Century” was aired on CBS-radio in 1932.

* Pennsylvania voters overturned a blue law that forbade Sunday sports in 1933.

* Cold War: The Gaither Report called for more American missiles and fallout shelters in 1957.

* Richard Nixon proclaimed, “You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore,” and quit politics on this day in 1962. Later, he ran for president and won two terms, only to be ousted after the Watergate affair, when he proclaimed, “I'm not a crook.”

* President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Public Broadcasting Act establishing The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) in 1967.

* John and Yoko released their “Wedding Album” in the U.K. in 1969.

* A bomb exploded at the U.S. Senate building in 1983. It was set by members of a group claiming to be the “Resistance Conspiracy” in protest of U.S. military involvement in Grenada and Lebanon.

* One of my favorite basketball players for the Los Angeles Lakers, Magic Johnson, announced he had HIV virus and retired from the team in 1991.

* The controversial U.S. presidential election took place in 2000 and was later resolved in the Bush v. Gore Supreme Court Case.

* The USS New York, a warship built with steel salvaged from the World Trade Center, went into service in 2009.

Today is National Bittersweet Chocolate With Almonds Day, which is kind of a nutty thing to note, but someone thinks it's important enough to list on a holiday calendar.

Finally, the number 7 is thought to be lucky. So is the number 11. That makes today -- 7/ll -- special if you're into numerology.

As It Stands, perhaps most important, this day is the first day of the rest of your life!

Oh the Horror! What Makes People Pass Out at the Movies

“If you’re nervous about blood or claustrophobic, or if you commonly cover your eyes during a movie, then 127 Hours will feel at least twice that long to you.

The film is among this year’s top Oscar contenders, featuring a performance from James Franco that’s revelatory, but it’s not for the faint of heart. Franco plays Aron Ralston, the hiker who in 2003 was trapped for four days under a boulder and had to amputate his own arm with a dull knife to survive. At early showings of the film, between 13 and 16 people fainted, two reportedly became lightheaded, and three had seizures, according to a survey on Movieline.”

Read the rest of the review here.

Carl’s Corner: Happy Birthday Emily Rose!

Proud grandfather Carl Young snapped these pics of his granddaughter’s first birthday party recently. Grandma Charyl beams happily as Emily Rose takes in her surroundings.

As It Stands, may you have many more birthday parties Emily Rose! You cutie…

Daylight savings Time: How time flies! Where to see the world's clocks

Watching the hours fly by from London's Big Ben to NYC's Grand Central

Daylight Saving Time (DST) ends at 2 a.m. Sunday morning when we “fall back” to standard time by turning our clocks back one hour. As you reset the clocks on the microwave, the TV and the bedside alarm, imagine yourself watching time fly in one of these clock-worthy cities.

                                                    Iconic Ben Ben (right) is a London landmark.

New York City's Grand Central Terminal

• For decades, the clock over the information booth at New York City’s Grand Central Terminal has served as both easy-to-spot timepiece and iconic meeting point. Like all clocks at Grand Central, the 1913 four-sided, ball clock is set by the atomic clock in the Naval Observatory in Bethesda, Md., and is accurate to within 1 second every 20 billion years. But the information booth clock is not just accurate; it’s extremely valuable. “The ball clock has been valued at between $10 and $20 million dollars,” said Metro-North Railroad spokesperson Dan Brucker, “That’s because every face of that four-faced clock is made out of a precious jewel: opal.”

  Where to watch this clock: Grand Central Terminal

• The intricately carved bronze clock at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York City was originally a gift from Queen Victoria to the United States for the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893.

• Standing nine feet tall and weighing in at two tons, the clock has an octagonal base made from marble and mahogany and is decorated with animal sculptures, plaques displaying sporting scenes and portraits of Ben Franklin, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Queen Victoria and other historical figures. Chimes, identical to those heard at Westminster Cathedral, play every 15 minutes. And according to hotel tour guide and historian Karen Stockbridge, a copy of the French-made Statue of Liberty was added to the top of the clock by the hotel in 1897. “The English were upset that we put a French statue on an English clock and tried to ask for it back,” said Stockbridge.

• GO HERE TO SEE MORE

HBO Documentary "War Torn" to air on Nov. 11

I highly recommend viewing this documentary. As a combat vet with PTSD, it’s encouraging to see more information getting to the general public.

If you have a loved one currently in the military, or ex-military, that suffers from depression related to their experiences, this documentary offers insights.

Take a minute and read the following and you’ll see why I think this is a must read for all Americans – especially on Veterans Day. 

Civil War doctors called it hysteria, melancholia and insanity. During the First World War it was known as shell-shock. By World War II, it became combat fatigue. Today, it is clinically known as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a crippling anxiety that results from exposure to life-threatening situations such as combat.

With suicide rates among active military servicemen and veterans currently on the rise, the HBO special WARTORN 1861-2010 brings urgent attention to the invisible wounds of war. Drawing on personal stories of American soldiers whose lives and psyches were torn asunder by the horrors of battle and PTSD, the documentary chronicles the lingering effects of combat stress and post-traumatic stress on military personnel and their families throughout American history, from the Civil War through today’s conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. The HBO Documentary Films presentation debuts on Veterans Day, THURSDAY, NOV. 11 (9:00-10:15 p.m. ET/PT), exclusively on HBO.

Executive produced by James Gandolfini (HBO’s “Alive Day Memories: Home from Iraq”), Wartorn 1861-2010 is directed by Jon Alpert and Ellen Goosenberg Kent and produced by Alpert, Goosenberg Kent and Matthew O’Neill, the award-winning producers behind the HBO documentary “Alive Day Memories: Home from Iraq.” Alpert and O’Neill also produced and directed the HBO documentaries “Section 60:  Arlington National Cemetery” and the Emmy^®-winning “Baghdad ER.” The documentary is co-produced by Lori Shinseki.

The documentary shares stories through soldiers’ revealing letters and journals; photographs and combat footage; first-person interviews with veterans of WWII (who are speaking about their PTSD for the first time), the Vietnam War, Operation Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom; and interviews with family members of soldiers with PTSD. Also included are insightful conversations between Gandolfini and top U.S. military personnel (General Ray Odierno, commander of U.S. troops in Iraq, and General Peter Chiarelli, Vice Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army), enlisted men in Iraq, and medical experts working at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. Gen. Chiarelli, who is working to reduce the rising suicide rate in the Army comments, “You’re fighting a culture that doesn’t believe that injuries you can’t see can be as serious as injuries that you can see.”

Bookended by haunting montages of emotionally battered American soldiers through the years, Wartorn 1861-2010 explores the very real wounds that occur as a result of combat stress, or PTSD. Among the segments of the film are:

Angelo Crapsey: In 1861, 18-year-old Angelo Crapsey enlisted in the Union Army. His commanding officer called him the “ideal of a youthful patriot.” In letters sent over the course of two years, Crapsey’s attitude toward the Civil War darkened after he experienced combat and witnessed the deaths of countless soldiers, including several by suicide. By 1863, Crapsey, was hospitalized, feverish and delirious; eventually he was sent home to Roulette, Pa. Becoming paranoid and violent, he killed himself in 1864 at age 21. His father John wrote, “If ever a man’s mental disorder was caused by hardships endured in the service of his country, this was the case with my son.” A postscript reveals, “After the Civil War, over half of the patients in mental institutions were veterans.”

Noah Pierce: More than a century after Crapsey’s suicide, 23-year-old Noah Pierce got in his truck, put a handgun to his head, placed his dog tag next to his temple and shot himself. Pierce’s mother Cheryl recalls how her son changed following two tours of Iraq, showing a photo of him “filled with hate and disillusionment.” Cheryl Pierce says, “The United States Army turned my son into a killer,” adding, “They forgot to un-train him.” In a letter he left in the truck, Pierce wrote, “I’m freeing myself from the desert once and for all…I have taken lives, now it’s time to take mine.”

World War II vets: “Combat fatigue” was considered a character flaw in World War II. In a famous story, Gen. George S. Patton slapped a soldier hospitalized with nervous exhaustion, ordering “that yellow SOB” back to the front. It took 50 years for WWII vets to be diagnosed with PTSD. Today, in the documentary, a group opens up publicly about their traumas for the first time.

Al Maher, who was a Lieutenant in the Army Air Corps, laments the toll his war experience took on his family life – he became abusive and took to drinking. As a result, he has not spoken to his sons in 25 years. Abner Greenberg, a corporal in the Marines who lost two best friends in Iwo Jima, kept his wartime traumas pent up and never shared them with his children until he joined a PTSD group and discovered what was wrong with him. Former Army sergeant Bill Thomas remembers shooting four Germans, and being moved when the sole survivor showed him a family photo. “How do you explain the horrors?” Greenberg asks. “It consumes you.”

Akinsanya Kambon: Marine combat illustrator Kambon served as a corporal in Vietnam for nine months. “The Marine Corps teaches you to be like an animal,” he says, adding he turned into “a mad dog.” One of his nightmarish drawings is of a soldier, eyes still flickering, whose lower torso is blown away. “It’s one of the images that I wake up screaming about,” he says, “but it won’t go away.”

Gen. Ray Odierno: In Baghdad, James Gandolfini meets with Gen. Ray Odierno, Commander of Allied Forces in Iraq, who says that 30% of service men and women report symptoms of PTSD and explains how Vietnam helped inform today’s understanding of combat trauma. “Nobody is immune,” says Odierno, relating how his own enlisted son lost his left arm when a rocket-propelled grenade ripped through his vehicle, killing the driver. Later, at nearby Camp Slater, Gandolfini visits with U.S. Army Sgt. John Wesley Matthews, who speaks candidly about his bouts of depression, reliance on sleeping pills and contemplation of suicide.

Jason Scheuerman: A member of the 3rd Infantry Division in Iraq, Scheuerman grew up in a family of soldiers. His father Chris recalls how Jason went to see an Army psychiatrist, and filled out a questionnaire admitting that he had thought about killing himself. After a ten-minute evaluation, he was told to “man up” and was ordered back to his barracks to clean his weapon. Instead, he shot himself. “It’s not just the soldier that’s in combat that comes down with PTSD,” says Chris Jr., who served in Afghanistan. “It’s the entire family.”

Nathan Damigo: In San Jose, Marine Lance Cpl. Nathan Damigo got a hero’s welcome when he returned home from Iraq. A month later, he was arrested for attacking a Middle Eastern taxi driver at gunpoint. As his mother Charilyn explains, Damigo was drunk and confused, and went into “combat mode” as he assaulted the cabbie. After a final night of freedom, Damigo makes a court appearance where he is sentenced to six years in jail. “They took him when he was 18 and put him through a paper shredder,” says his heartbroken mother. “We get to try to put all the pieces back together. Sometimes they don’t go back together.”

Herbert B. Hayden: In 1921, Col. Herbert Hayden’s Atlantic Monthly story “Shell-Shocked and After” described the “perfect hell” of being sent to the front in WWI. His nightmare continued even after he returned home six months later “back and yet not back at all.” Suicidal, Hayden checked into Walter Reed Hospital, “searching for a spark in the emptiness,” but found only newspaper clippings of tormented ex-soldiers who were not being cared for. “What was wrong with my country?” he asked.

William Fraas Jr.: Two years after his return from the current Iraq conflict, Billy Fraas is trapped by memories, transfixed by computerized photos taken over 29 months and three tours of duty. The leader of a reconnaissance team, he was sent home after PTSD symptoms surfaced, and his leg still shakes uncontrollably when he sits at the computer. Fraas’ wife Marie is frustrated by what’s become of her husband. “Even though he wasn’t shot,” she says, “he still died over there.” Adds Fraas, “I’ve seen humanity at its worst. And I struggle with that on a daily basis.”

HBO Documentary Films in association with Attaboy Films presents WARTORN: 1861-2010. Directed by Jon Alpert and Ellen Goosenberg Kent; produced by Jon Alpert, Ellen Goosenberg Kent and Matthew O’Neill; co-producer, Lori Shinseki; co-producer, archival segments, Caroline Waterlow; edited by Geof Bartz, A.C.E., Andrew Morreale, and Jay Sterrenberg; supervising producer, Sara Bernstein; executive produced by James Gandolfini and Sheila Nevins.