Texas Labor Against the War

Join us on Memorial Day as we celebrate Kyle Wesolowski’s release from the army as a Conscientious Objector!
Meet the organizers of Operation Recovery.

Kyle Wesolowski

Monday, May 30th, starting at 2:00 p.m.
Under the Hood Cafe & Outreach Center,
17 College Street, Killeen Texas

A $10 suggested donation is requested to cover the cost of food, however, no one will be turned away for lack of funds. GIs are welcome to join us free of charge.

All are invited to Under the Hood to catch up with old friends and meet new ones. Also, visit with IVAW field organizers who have arrived for several months of work doing outreach to Fort Hood soldiers as part of Operation Recovery.

http://www.underthehoodcafe.org/ and https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=110527332368984&ref=ts

Operation Recovery Team

For more on Operation Recovery action at Fort Hood, see http://txlaboragainstwar.org/2011/05/27/killeen-ivaw-operation-recovery-action-at-ft-hood/

May is a busy month at Under the Hood.   Iraq Veterans Against the War headed to UTH this month, as part of its Operation Recovery Campaign, in its continued effort to stop the deployment of troops suffering from PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury, and Military Sexual Trauma .  IVAW has requested a meeting with General Don Campbell.  Read IVAW’s letter to General Campbell here.   IVAW has not yet received a response, but their efforts to reach the General is only the beginning of the work they plan to do while in Fort Hood.  IVAW’s organizing team will work for several months to outreach to soldiers, build their case against the military’s egregious practices, conduct town hall meetings, and pressure Fort Hood’s new General to do the right thing 

 

Regina Vasquez brings her  Fatigues Clothesline to UTH.  This 8 week series beginning May 15th, from 5-7 pm, is for women only.  To find out more, you can reach Regina at [email protected].

 

Join us on Memorial Day as we celebrate Kyle Wesolowski’s release from the army!  As we told you in our March issue,  Kyle’s Conscientious Objector claim was approved by the U.S. Army.  Since he was notified of his CO status, Kyle has been on terminal leave.  After months of patiently waiting, Kyle will officially be out of the military by Memorial Day! 

 

Here are the details:

What: Under the Hood BBQ and get-together  

When: Monday, May 30th, starting at 2:00 p.m.

Where: Under the Hood Cafe & Outreach Center, 17 College Street, Killeen Texas

 

A $10 suggested donation is requested to cover the cost of food, however, no one will be turned away for lack of funds.  GIs are welcome to join us free of charge.

Meet new friends and get together with old ones.  We look forward to seeing you on the 30th!

 

The Fort Hood Support Network, sponsor of Under the Hood, is very pleased to receive a 2011 grant from RESIST, an organization that has funded forty years of social change.  The “Hell Yes!” Grant was awarded for leadership in the movement for social justice on April 3, 2011.  RESIST says, “The ‘Hell Yes!’ Grant honors the spirit of resistance to illegitimate authority and is awarded to groups that embody the moral clarity, courage and political commitment to challenge the forces that drive toward war and place profits over people.”  The Fort Hood Support Network board member and treasurer says: “We are honored to be a ‘Hell Yes!’ grant recipient.”  

 

Your continued support of Under the Hood allows us to continue our important work in Killeen. Whether you are making a one-time donation or want to sign up as a sustainer, it’s easy to contribute through PayPal.  

 

The Fort Hood Support Network (FHSN) operates Under the Hood Café and Outreach Center.  FHSN is a Texas non-profit corporation with 501(c)(3) tax exempt status.  Donations may be treated as tax-deductible.  

Interested in sharing some of your time and talents with Under the Hood?   We are always happy for support in any form.  Along with monetary support to keep our doors open, we can always use other forms of assistance.  If you believe that you can provide support in some way, please feel free to contact us.  We’d be happy to put you to work!

 

 Check out the  ResiStore!   Now you can purchase great items and support Under the Hood at the same time. Check it out here.

  

Under the Hood Update is on Facebook.  Become a fan!  You can find archived issues and connect with other fans of Under the Hood.  Visit our Facebook page by clicking here.

 

Past issues of Under the Hood Update are now on the Under the Hood website!

If you’ve missed any of our past issues, or if you just want to re-read past articles, please click here.

P.O Box 16174 | Austin, TX  78761

 

Fort Hood suicide rate four times the national average?  Austin activist and Under the Hood Cafe volunteer Jim Turpin takes another look at the escalating crisis of GI suicides and PTSD.

Under the Hood Café near Ft. Hood in Killeen Texas is a place where active duty GIs and veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan can discuss the debilitating effects of war. Photo from Under the Hood / Flickr.

Texas’ Fort Hood sets the pace:

PTSD and suicides in the military
are at an all-time high

By Jim Turpin / The Rag Blog / October 27, 2010

KILLEEN, Texas — Even with the spin from the current administration that the “war is over” in Iraq, it is well known that 50,000 combat-ready troops remain in the country. Add to that a recent deployment of 2,000 troops from the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment from Fort Hood in Texas. At present almost 100,000 troops remain in Afghanistan.

With the total number of U.S. military personnel cycling through both Afghanistan and Iraq at almost 1.8 million, and with the RAND corporation estimating that 18% have PTSD (which is deemed low by some experts), this would put the returning numbers with PTSD at 324,000.

A recent article in The New York Times confirms what the organizers of the Killeen-based GI coffeehouse Under the Hood Café have been battling at Fort Hood for the last year and a half: suicides are at the highest point since 2008, with 14 confirmed suicides since the beginning of 2010. In one recent weekend, there were three suicides and one murder-suicide at Fort Hood.

With the population at Fort Hood ranging from 46,000 to 50,000 soldiers at any given time, the rate of suicide is four times the national average, based on Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimates of 11.5 suicides per 100,000 people.

The repeated deployment of military personnel who suffer from both physical and psychological wounds has led to these all-time high suicide rates. A recent article in the American Journal of Public Health studied 2,500 New Jersey National Guardsmen and determined “deployed soldiers were more than three times as likely as soldiers with no previous deployments to screen positive for post traumatic stress disorder.”

Despite these staggering statistics, the Fort Hood command continues to find ways to deny soldiers their right to receive necessary mental health services. Several soldiers have come forward recently with reports of harassment, undue punishment, and interference when seeking these necessary services.

A number of examples include:

• The imprisonment of SPC. Eric Jasinski in March 2010. Jasinski, who was suffering from PTSD, refused redeployment to Iraq based on this condition. It was feared that Jasinski’s confinement could interfere with his ability to receive his prescribed medications. Eric’s attorney James Branum stated, “He was seeing a psychiatrist for his condition and prescribed Zoloft for depression and Trazadone to get to sleep, and they handed him his gun and told him to go back to Iraq.”
• The deployment of 50 soldiers from Ft. Hood with physical (knee, back, and shoulder issues due to bomb blasts) and psychological (PTSD/TBI) issues in June 2010 to the National Training Center at Ft. Irwin, California. Combat training for those soldiers with verified PTSD and other anxiety disorders runs counterintuitive to generally accepted psychiatric practices.
• Recent reports from soldiers at Ft. Hood suffering from PTSD and substance abuse who are being given extra work loads or are being kept from dealing with additional personal crises at home. Issues they are confronted with include being given medication only (instead of counseling) or being ignored by the chain of command when they request assistance.

Veteran deaths also surge after discharge from the military and are often the result of vehicle accidents, motorcycle crashes, drug overdoses, or other causes. An article this month in The New York Times discusses the huge number of veteran deaths attributed to destructive, risky, and lethal behaviors:

“The data show that veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan were two and a half times as likely to commit suicide as Californians of the same age with no military service. They were twice as likely to die in a vehicle accident and five and a half times as likely to die in a motorcycle accident. These numbers are truly alarming and should wake up the whole country,” said United States Representative Bob Filner, Democrat of San Diego, who is the chairman of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee.

“They show a failure of our policy.”

The Under the Hood Café and Outreach Center, the GI coffeehouse located near Ft. Hood, Texas, the largest military base in the U.S., offers GIs a free speech zone. It provides a non-military environment that allows active duty GIs and veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan to discuss the debilitating effects of war. Under the Hood offers free referrals for medical and psychological services and legal assistance for those soldiers who are resisting redeployment to war zones.

To benefit its ongoing efforts in support of GIs, veterans, and military families, Under the Hood is having a “Hoodstock Flashback” concert (see graphic below) on Sunday, November 14, from 6-11 p.m. at Jovita’s in Austin. Admission is $10 at the door and includes such artists as Barbara K, Karen Abrahams, Will T. Massey, and Richard Bowden.

[Jim Turpin is a native Austinite and member of CodePink Austin. He also volunteers for the GI coffeehouse Under the Hood Café at Ft. Hood in Killeen, Texas.]

IRAQ VETERANS AGAINST THE WAR CONVENTION KICK-OFF
Friday, July 9, 7pm, 5604 Manor Road

Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) is holding its 2010 national
convention July 9-11 in Austin, and supporters of IVAW will have a chance
for informal discussion and socializing with the group’s members. Tickets
for the event, which will include a buffet catered by Mamas of Color
Rising, will be $15 at the door. In addition to an awards presentation,
the evening will feature a talk by Antonia Juhasz, director of the Chevron
Program at Global Exchange and author The Tyranny of Oil: the World’s Most
Powerful Industry, and What We Must Do To Stop It. Juhasz is a member of
the advisory board of IVAW. The panels and workshops for the IVAW
convention will be on Saturday, July 10, at Huston-Tillotson University,
900 Chicon St. Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) is a national
membership organization of veterans and active duty troops who have served in the “Global War on Terror” since September 11, 2001. Founded in 2004 by nine Iraq veterans, IVAW is now made up of 65 chapters comprised of close to 2,000 members, including chapters on military bases. IVAW is building a national GI and veterans’ resistance movement to 1) end the occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan, 2) attain quality health care and other benefits for returning troops, and 3) win reparations to rebuild a sovereign Iraq and Afghanistan. For more information visit the IVAW website.

http://www.ivaw.org

Warrior Writers

Veterans Day Veterans Speak
at Under the Hood Cafe
Wednesday, Nov. 11, 4-7 p.m.
GI and Veteran Writing Workshop

8-10 p.m., Open mic and fundraiser

Thursday, Nov. 12, 4-8 p.m., Extended writing workshop

Under the Hood, 17 S. College St., Killeen, TX,  254-449-8811

http://www.underthehoodcafe.org/index.html

16 August 2009

Alice Embree : The Court Martial of Travis Bishop

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Travis Bishop (right), before his sentencing. With (left) journalist Dahr Jamail and attorney James Branum. Photo by Alice Embree / The Rag Blog.
Anti-war GI Travis Bishop found guilty;
joins Victor Agosto in Bell County jail

I can not say that a year in prison doesn’t scare me. I am terrified… (But) it would be scarier still to know that my fellow soldiers who feel as we feel would never find out what we are trying to accomplish. — Travis Bishop

By Alice Embree / The Rag Blog / August 16, 2009

See ‘Protesters support Bishop and Agosto’ by Alice Embree, Below.

In the second court martial in two weeks, another Fort Hood soldier was sentenced on August 14th for refusing to deploy to Afghanistan.

Sgt. Travis Bishop was brought before special court martial proceedings, found guilty and sentenced to one year in prison. His rank and pay were reduced. He is expected to be held in the Bell County Correctional Unit before serving his sentence in a military jail. His discharge status will be determined later. Because Sgt. Bishop has a prior honorable discharge, his GI benefits may not be reduced.

Sgt. Bishop faced four charges: willful disobedience of a Non-Commissioned Officer, absence without leave and two counts of missing movement. The charges were more serious than those faced by Spc. Victor Agosto on August 5th. Agosto’s case was resolved in a summary court martial and he is serving a one month sentence in the Bell County Correctional Unit.

The courtroom resembled a civil courtroom with the judge in black robes. An Army defense attorney was seated with Bishop and his civilian defense attorney, James Branum. The panel, however, was hardly a peer panel. The jury seats were filled by eight Colonels, Lieutenant Colonels and Majors who had to be warned once not to fall asleep while the Judge read instructions.

A Fort Hood Public Affairs representative told Bishop supporters during a recess that Bishop was being tried in the same courtroom where Army Staff Sgt. Shane Werst had faced a court martial for shooting an unarmed Iraqi citizen. “Five privates turned a dime on him,” he said. Despite testimony that soldiers were ordered to plant a gun on the Iraqi citizen to make the death appear to be self defense, Werst was acquitted May 26, 2005. Bishop’s sentence for not deploying is a sobering contrast.

Bishop’s court martial began on Thursday and Bishop’s defense attorney and supporters had expected the arraignment, designation of a jury panel and testimony of one witness to be brief. Instead, the trial began in earnest and lasted five hours. At one point on Thursday, supporter Cynthia Thomas was asked by a Killeen police officer and an Army MP to leave the courtroom and explain her relationship with the defendant. Thomas asked if she were being detained and to speak to her attorney. She was not stopped from returning to the courtroom.

The prosecution brought Captain Chrisopher Hall in to testify that the absence of Travis Bishop from his unit had caused hardship to his unit. The defense presented four witnesses who testified to Travis Bishop’s sincerity of beliefs. Bishop filed a request for Conscientious Objector status in late May and the request is still pending.

Charles Luther, a defense witness with a background as a lay Baptist minister, spoke of Bishop’s religious beliefs. The defense attorney established that psychiatrist, Lt. Col. Adams, to whom Bishop had been referred, approved Bishop’s Conscientious Objector claim and that it was one of only two claims in his ten years that Adams had approved.

In a surprise moment at the end of testimony, the Prosecution decided to call Lt. Colonel Ronald Leininger to the stand. Leininger was the Brigade Chaplain to whom Bishop was referred for pastoral counseling. Bishop has described his deep disappointment in speaking to someone he thought would be attentive to his religious beliefs. Bishop said the Chaplain reduced his interview time and interrupted the interview repeatedly by receiving phone calls.

In the statement issued by the Chaplain after his visit with Bishop, he focused almost no attention on Bishop’s religious beliefs. Instead, he wrote that Bishop had been coached by Iraq Veterans Against the War and other antiwar activists. He went further to say that the affiliation that best described Bishop’s religious heritage was “Conservative Evangelicals” who the Captain said are “generally pro-military service with no pacifist tendencies in doctrine or practice. In fact, they make good soldiers.”

Bishop has received letters of support from a number of pastors who cite their church’s doctrine and practice supporting conscientious objection to war.

The court was recessed as the panel considered the verdict for about one hour. They found Sgt. Bishop guilty. In the sentencing phase, the civilian defense attorney, James Branum, asked for a three months sentence in light of Sgt. Bishop’s sincerity and previous good conduct, including a fourteen month deployment in Iraq. In particular, Branum focused on the fact that soldiers are never given information about their rights to Conscientious Objection. Branum said that a soldier who changes his or her belief about war doesn’t understand that there are options.

Maj. Matthew McDonald, who served as the judge, discounted the relevancy of whether Bishop was notified about his right to file for CO status. McDonald was quoted in the Killeen Daily Herald (8/14/09) as saying: “If every soldier in the Army who disobeyed an order could claim it was because they weren’t notified of conscientious objector status, we probably wouldn’t have a military any more.”

Prior to sentencing, Bishop’s testimony was forceful and moving. He cited several articles that protect a soldiers rights and noted that soldiers often are not informed of their rights, but that doesn’t relieve the Army of its responsibility to honor those rights. Bishop said that the right to pursue a claim of Conscientious Objection requires protection. He said that he was unaware that he could pursue a claim of Conscientious Objection until right before his deployment.

“The truth is, as soon as I discovered this process [C.O.] existed, I acted upon it. I left because I did not feel that I would have a sympathetic, understanding command structure to fully take my problems to, and also to give myself time to prepare for my C.O. application process, and the legal battle I’m currently fighting. These are not excuses. These are explanations. My hope is that you truly treat them as such during your sentencing deliberations.”

After being sentenced to the maximum jail term allowable under a Special Court Martial, Bishop had time to handwrite a note:

“To everyone who still cares: I can not say that a year in prison doesn’t scare me. I am terrified… But still, though I am terrified, it would be scarier still to know that my fellow soldiers who feel as we feel would never find out what we are trying to accomplish… Everyone who hears or reads this should know that I love you all, and my life is forever changed because of you. Victor and myself are starting something and it is now up to all of you to continue on. With all my heart. Travis.”

As Bishop was escorted from the Justice Center to a waiting van, supporters who were active duty soldiers or veterans stood at attention and saluted. Hands cuffed together, Bishop flashed a peace sign in return.

Demonstrators outside the Bell County Correctional Unit where Victor Agosto and Travis Bishop are being held. Photo by Alice Embree / The Rag Blog.

Protesters support Bishop and Agosto

Protesters gathered Saturday, August 15th, in support of two Afghanistan war resisters held in the Bell County Correctional Unit. Under a blazing Texas sun, protesters held signs and chanted.

Victor Agosto is incarcerated at the Bell County facility after being court martialed August 5th for refusing to deploy to Afghanistan. Agosto was sentenced to one month. Travis Bishop will be held in Bell County for about two weeks before his transfer to a military prison. Bishop was court martialed August 14th and received a sentence of one year.

Supporters plan to be present every Saturday while the resisters are in jail at this facility. For more information, go to the Under the Hood Cafe website.

–Alice Embree / The Rag Blog / August 16,2009

http://theragblog.blogspot.com/