Veterans Studies: Expanding Notions of “Vet Friendly”
to Include the Curriculum
By Penny Coleman, Military Experience and the Arts.
Published: May 20, 2014
Despite the eagerness of colleges and universities to accept the tuition
and other benefits that student veterans bring to their campuses, and even
despite the well-intentioned efforts of many schools to provide those students
with supportive “veteran friendly” environments, veterans remain
marginalized in the curriculum.
Military
Suicides: Those We Might Yet Save
By Penny Coleman, Justice Policy Institute. Published:
January 24, 2012
Soldiers throughout the ages have suffered traumatic injuries in response
to the horrors of war.
Why Are We
Throwing Traumatized Vets in Jail for Calling 911?
By Penny Coleman, Alternet. Posted April 21, 2011.
Joe Bangert is being jailed for doing exactly what he was trained to do:
calling for backup when he feels threatened.
10 Reasons
the U.S. Military Should (Officially) Use Pot
By Penny Coleman, Alternet. Posted December 29,
2009.
Medical marijuana may have a host of advantages over other treatments for
traumatized vets, but the VA won't even study its efficacy.
Pentagon's
Advice to Traumatized Veterans: Think Happy Thoughts!
By Penny Coleman, Alternet. Posted December 10, 2009.
Hey, all you quitters and whiners: If it’s bad and it hurts, you have
to try harder, have faith, and above all, think positive!
Why Are We
Locking Up Traumatized Veterans for Their Addictions Instead of Offering
Them Treatment?
By Penny Coleman, Alternet. Posted November 11,
2009.
This Veterans Day, let's get past the bunting and ribbons and look at our
returning troops' real needs.
Read Alternet editor Joshua Holland's letter to Alternet subscribers about the following articles *
* Does
Military Service Turn Young Men into Sexual Predators?
By Penny Coleman, Alternet. Posted October 22, 2009.
"Everyone has the potential to be a sex offender. It depends on how they
have been conditioned."
Please note: In the original AlterNet article above, I stated that,
"The first BJS survey of incarcerated veterans found that two-thirds of those
veterans had been convicted of rape or sexual assault." That was incorrect.
In fact, in the first BJS survey of incarcerated veterans (1981), almost
two-thirds of veterans had been convicted of a violent crime. The break-down
among types of violent crimes is not indicated in the report. Penny
* Think
Vietnam Vets Were Screwed? Wait Until You See How Many Veterans of Bush's
Wars End up in Jail
By Penny Coleman, Alternet. Posted September 9, 2009.
Far too many soldiers end up behind bars while the rest of us are free to
ignore the human evidence of what our military ventures really cost.
* The
Tragedy of Our 'Disappeared' Veterans
By Penny Coleman, Alternet. Posted August 12, 2009.
How the justice system has been manipulated to put astonishing numbers of
vets with PTSD and other psychiatric injuries behind bars.
Cruel and
Unusual: Why Are We Doling Out Harsh Justice to Returning War Vets?
By Penny Coleman, Alternet. Posted August 5, 2009.
Veterans are more likely to get longer sentences than non-veterans for the
same crime. How can we treat returning soldiers so badly?
What Made
Him Snap? Soldier Goes on Killing Spree in Baghdad 'Stress Clinic'
By Penny Coleman, Alternet. Posted May 11, 2009.
Yesterday's attack was the deadliest by a fellow soldier since Bush's wars
began. The trauma of combat may be the source.
They
Sent Me to Distant Lands to Fight Against Muslims ... Then I Became
One
By Penny Coleman, Alternet. Posted April 9, 2009.
Along the way, I ate Burger King in Peshawar, developed a debilitating drug
habit and caught a 3-year prison sentence.
One Soldier's
Tale of How War Drove Him Crazy
By Penny Coleman, Alternet. Posted March 20, 2009.
"When it got really bad, I dumped 5 tons of sand into my basement to remind
me of Afghanistan."
Kids Learn
that Killing Is Fun at the Army's Lethal New Theme Park
By Penny Coleman, Alternet. Posted December 19, 2008.
The Army's new recruitment tool lets high-tech video game centers desensitize,
condition, train and even enlist America's youth.
U.S. Still
Losing a Brigade's Worth of Vets Every Year to Suicide
By Penny Coleman, Alternet. Posted November 11, 2008.
Obviously, the most immediate and reliable way to prevent soldier suicides
is to get troops out of harm’s way -- bring them home.
Raped
in the Military? You'll Have to Pay for Your Own Forensic Exam Kit
By Penny Coleman, Alternet. Posted November 11, 2008.
This outrage gives "supporting the troops" a whole new meaning.
Editor's note: a correction was made to this story since publication.
The uncorrected version stated incorrectly that the military doesn't cover
forensic exam kits for the 20 percent of rape victims treated on military
bases.
How
6,700 Tons of Radioactive Sand from Kuwait Ended Up in Idaho
By Penny Coleman, Alternet. Posted September 17, 2008.
Questions remain about how depleted uranium waste from the first Gulf War
was transferred, and whether health risks were posed.
Note: This article also appeared in the "Boise Weekly (Idaho)" titled
Hot
Sand, 6,700 tons of radioactive Kuwaiti sand at home in Idaho By Penny
Coleman, Posted September 24, 2008.
Suicide
Attempts for Vets Jump 500% in Five Years, and Government Ignores
It
By Penny Coleman, Alternet. Posted September 11, 2008.
Vets are killing themselves in growing numbers, but the government sees suicides
as a way to lower the official average processing time of claims.
Echoes
of Vietnam: VA Stalls, Dissembles While Vets Suffer and Die
By Penny Coleman, Alternet. Posted July 4, 2008.
The latest episode of the Department of Veterans Affairs' callous denial
of veterans' suffering is a continuation of a long tradition.
Maine Jury
Says It's Legal to Protest an Illegal War
By Penny Coleman, Alternet. Posted May 31, 2008.
A rare bit of good news for the anti-war movement goes largely ignored by
the media.
Half
of Vets Suffering Brain and Mind Injuries Go Untreated, But Pentagon Pretends
Nothing's Going on
By Penny Coleman, Alternet. Posted April 29, 2008.
An activist travels to the DoD's annual suicide prevention conference, only
to find the military brass living in a parallel universe.
Sending
a Son off to War: a Mother's Anguish
By Penny Coleman, Alternet. Posted April 21, 2008.
"How will I survive the wait and the not-knowing, and will I survive at all
if my worst fears are realized?"
Pentagon
Holds Thousands of Americans "Prisoners of War"
By Penny Coleman, AlterNet. Posted March 26, 2008.
There are at least 60,000 of them, but they're not on the DoD's list of soldiers
missing in action.
Winter
Soldier: America Must Hear These Iraq Vets' Stories
By Penny Coleman, Alternet. Posted March 15, 2008.
War Trauma
Is an Admission of Weakness in 'Macho' Army Culture
By Penny Coleman, Alternet. Posted March 14, 2008.
Pentagon,
Big Pharma: Drug Troops to Numb Them to Horrors of War
By Penny Coleman, Alternet. Posted January 10, 2008
Activist
Tells Congress About Suicide Epidemic Among Vets
By Penny Coleman, Alternet. Posted January 2, 2008
120 War
Vets Commit Suicide Each Week
By Penny Coleman, Alternet. Posted November 26, 2007
[Hear this editorial read by KPFK's Blaise
Fontaine]
Casualties on the Home Front: The Epidemic of Vet
Suicides
By Penny Coleman, The Beacon Broadside. Posted November
10, 2007.
Veterans'
Suicides: a Hidden Cost of Bush's Wars
By Penny Coleman, Alternet. Posted November 11, 2007.
Note: These two Veterans Day 2007 articles listed above are published
on two sites under different names, but the content is the same.
Pentagon
Denies Increase in Troops' Suicides a Result of War
By Penny Coleman, Alternet. Posted August 28, 2007.
War Psychiatry
and Iraq Atrocities: How Killing Becomes a Reflex
By Penny Coleman, Alternet. Posted August 22, 2007.
AlterNet:
Reflections of a Vietnam War Widow: It Doesn't End When They Come
Home
By Penny Coleman, Alternet. Posted June 25, 2007.
The casualties
continue to mount after they come home ...
Posted on AlterNet.org. Memorial Day, May 28, 2007.
Vets'
suicides: casualties that go uncounted and another hidden cost of
war
Posted on AlterNet.org by Joshua Holland. Valentines Day, February 14, 2007.
KPFK's Online Audio Archives Website
Dec 09, 2007 "World Focus: Returning Veteran Suicide" by
BlaiseFontaine
[Note: This item is no longer available from the Online Archive, but
can be downloaded from Flashback (see below)]