THIS IS A PARTIAL REWRITE OF ONE OF MY FIRST ARTICLES
In The Presence Of The Sacred: Of My Father and My Family, and Related Notes: Wherein I suggest that the misconduct of medical and administrative staff at the Arizona State Hospital insults the very life blood/heritage of its many patients, including my own.
NOVEMBER 11, 2013: Only in the last 15-20 years has the fact that combat experience, and/or any other like traumatic experiences specific to war, can and does pose very serious risk to any warrior's state of mind and well being. In the past, terms such as "shell shocked or "war torn" were applied to the men and women who's overall sense of identity and esteem were damaged via the impacts of serious service in the context, which directly contributed to the failure of society in terms of such individuals needs.
"Two and a half million Americans have served in Iraq and Afghanistan; many of them, more than once. The VA tells us about 20 percent come home with post-traumatic stress disorder, known as PTSD. So, that comes to about 500,000. For some, returning is harder than they imagined. The suicide rate for the Army is up 15 percent over last year. For the Marines its up 28 percent. A few of our troops return to become something they never thought they could be: criminals, for the first time in their lives." (Justice For Vets, Nov. 2013 [justiceforvets.org])
Thankfully, we do today see increasing acknowledgement specific to this issue, but as with many other other elements of American society's shortfalls, there is still much work to be done, if we as a nation are to grant our veterans our full obligations, and so on. During my 13 months of hospitalization at The Arizona State Hospital, I had the pleasure and privilege of coming to know a number of patients with military history, and in more than a few conversations, I came to understand this issue as it has impacted many men and women. The crisis, in many terms, has everything to do with the failure of our system to respond to the needs of veterans of war until well after that point in time that such individuals lives have been torn to shambles by the affects of combat induced mental and emotional illness, whereas today, the term "post-traumatic stress disorder" has come to replace such terminology. But good work takes far more than technical terminology.
"All of you who work in Veterans Treatment Courts are forever changing the way this nation treats veterans when their invisible wounds of war lead them astray. From coast to coast, in jurisdictions large and small, Veterans Treatment Courts are stepping up to make certain our veterans are cared for when they need it most. Throughout November I hope you take the opportunity to tell your stories of success and transformation. Let your community know the good work you are doing to serve veterans. In doing so, we will demonstrate to this nation that veterans who struggle following their service can recover and live productive lives.” - General (ret.) Barry McCaffrey.
"Two and a half million Americans have served in Iraq and Afghanistan; many of them, more than once. The VA tells us about 20 percent come home with post-traumatic stress disorder, known as PTSD. So, that comes to about 500,000. For some, returning is harder than they imagined. The suicide rate for the Army is up 15 percent over last year. For the Marines its up 28 percent. A few of our troops return to become something they never thought they could be: criminals, for the first time in their lives." (Justice For Vets, Nov. 2013 [justiceforvets.org])
My father was a AAA baseball player before entering Annapolis, where he also starred on the Navy ball team, including playing against Wille Mays, aka "No. 44", when the latter player was starring at West Point, playing for Army. In my family records, there is a photo of my father and Mr. Mays shaking hands on a pitcher's mound, I am not sure of the year, but it would have been in the early 1940s. As a fully enrolled member of the Chickasaw nation, my father became one of the highest authorized (ranked) American Indians in the entire military complex (at the time), eventually acquiring the rank of full commander. Later in his life, in relation to serving as a high level- at times administrative- ranked Naval officer, during some of our nation's most colorful (for lack of a better word) military history, my father did fall victim to the effects of stress, conscientious disagreement with the practices of US military strategy, and deeply personal identity crisis that arose with direct respect for his heritage. His career crumbled when he was 51 years old, as a direct and undeniable consequence of his own struggles with major depression, substance abuse, and other like traits that are today known to be common to any long term serving military staff.
April 18, 2012:
This is the United States, and all that that implies. In this era, the new millennium, and with specific reflection on the history of our American culture and all that has been required thus far to get where we are today, there is no way in hell that someone like myself is going to sit back and allow for the administrators and senior clinicians at The Arizona State Hospital to treat my fellow citizens like dirt. Ain't gonna' happen, and never was once I learned of this shit, and never will so long as those people are not held fully accountable to the full extent of the law as it stands today.
"KEEP IT UP, THEN, AND WE'LL ALL LOOK BACK
SOME DAY AND TALK ABOUT HOW WELL THAT
WORKED OUT FOR YOU."
(Memorial, United States Naval Academy)
On my father's side, I am not quite half Chickasaw, and my father was born on the reservation in Oklahoma in 1924 to Andrew Calhoun, and Jewell Maulsey Baker. Immediately following high school, he played AAA baseball (minor league pro) for two years in the New York Yankees' farm program. Due to an issue with his throwing arm, he left professional ball and entered the United States Naval Academy, where he starred on the baseball team and once appeared in a photograph with Willy Mays following an historic game against Army. My father is the last in a line of men in my family to have served at the command level in the American military, a direct line history that extends to the American Revolution, literally. My father served in the Navy for 31 years, attaining the rank of Full Commander in a very rich and active career that included extensive administrative duty in relation to the Amphibious Force Seventh Fleet/Expeditionary Strike Force early in the Viet Nam conflict, command of several amphibious fleets, and extensive aviator service, as follows:
1953-64: Naval aviator, USS Ashtabula and USS Faribault.
1954: Participated in Passage to Freedom, the largest operation of its kind in history. Operation evacuated 310,000 people from communist-controlled North Vietnam to South Vietnam and carried 58,000 tons of cargo and humanitarian aid.
1953-64: Naval aviator, USS Ashtabula and USS Faribault.
1964-67: Command, VP-43 and VP-49.
1965-68: Participated in amphibious landings, assaults and expeditionary incursions off the eastern coast of the Republic of Vietnam.
1966-69: Naval Air Training Command, Naval Air Test Center.
1966-69: Naval Air Training Command, Naval Air Test Center. -On 3 February, 1962 the TALLAHATCHIE COUNTY was redesignated AVB-2, with CMDR Courtland Babcock and LT CMDR Jack Pickens in command. She now had a complement of 265 and quarters for 180 men of an aircraft squadron. Her mission was to beach wherever the call of duty arose, unload her 14 mobile support vans, construct a mobile airfield, and be fully operational within 24 hours. The vans also contained spare parts and equipment for weather forecasting, aircraft repairs, electronic repairs, and communications.
-On 15 May, 1962 TALLAHATCHIE COUNTY got underway for the Mediterranean and arrived at Naples, Italy, her new home port on 8 June 1962.
-During the next 17 months, she conducted advanced aviation base maneuvers at Souda Bay, Crete, and Cagliari, Sardinia. From 1 November to 15 December 1963, she made a 4800 mile cruise of the eastern Mediterranean in support of the naval Oceanographic Office
-During September 1964, she participated in an advanced aviation base exercise in conjunction with NATO operation FALLEX. IN February 1965, the TALLAHATCHIE COUNTY was called upon to salvage a jet aircraft that had splashed into the waters off the coast of Libya. She then returned to Naples to prepare for her longest advance aviation base operation to that time. Patrol Squadron 24 operated from TALLAHATCHIE's advance base in Souda Bay from July through September while the runways at the Naval Air Facility, Sigonella, were being repaired.
-During the summer of 1967 the TALLAHATCHIE COUNTY underwent and overhaul at the Socieata Escercizio Bocini Napoletani and then returned to operation in support of the Sixth Fleet. On 9 February, 1968 the TALLAHATCHIE COUNTY responded to an SOS form the Portuguese freighter DIAS which was sinking off the coast of Spain; and rescued her captain and crew of seven..-TALLAHATCHIE COUNTY operated out of Naples until 15 January, 1970 when she was decommissioned and struck from the Navy list. She was sold for scrap to Contieri Navali Santa Maria, Genoa, in July 1970.
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My father, Jackson Reed Pickens, Sr., died in a single car accident in 1970 not far outside of Brush, CO, while driving to New Mexico from the Chickasaw reservation in Oklahoma, where he had been spending time with his mother's family. He was on his way from there to visit and spend time with his children following full retirement from a long and illustrious Naval career. I never knew my father well, my parents separated before I was 5 years old and I have no clear memories of him whatsoever, which is sad, because I know that he loved his children.
In closing: Enough is enough. And it is with these ideas and feelings in mind that I say again that the rat bastards at The Arizona State Hospital picked the wrong people to pull their graphically illegal bullshit on, because we the people are citizens of the United States. That's myself, and the entire patient community at ASH. It is not in me or any person of similar conscientiousness and moral fiber to abandon my former patient-peers, and the ones most directly responsible for the dismally substandard conditions at ASH have been at it long enough. Highlight Your Veterans Treatment Court Program This November
Download your Veterans Day Toolkit today!
www.justiceforvets.org
Throughout November Justice For Vets is encouraging all Veterans Treatment Courts to reach out to their communities and local media. This is the perfect time to tell the story of the incredible transformation brought about every day in Veterans Treatment Court.
paoloreed@gmail.com
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I would really love input of any kind from anybody with any interest whatsoever in the issues that I am sharing in this blog. I mean it, anybody, for I will be the first one to admit that I may be inaccurately depicting certain aspects of the conditions
at ASH, and anonymous comments are fine. In any case, I am more than willing to value anybody's feelings about my writing, and I assure you that I will not intentionally exploit or otherwise abuse your right to express yourself as you deem fit. This topic is far, far too important for anything less. Thank you, whoever you are. Peace and Frogs.