Tag: veterans

450,000 U.S. Soldiers Diagnosed with Traumatic Brain Injury Since 2001

When I was living in Menlo Park, California in the years 2011-2015, I got to be pals with an affluent, patriotic man who was a benefactor the VA hospitals in Palo Alto and Menlo Park. He introduced me to a psychiatrist with whom I got to be pals, and on a few occasions I was given permission to accompany him when he visited his patients.

By far the most common injury I saw was what neurologists call a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). According to the National Institutes of Health (Occupation and Risk of Traumatic Brain Injury in the Millennium Cohort Study) rom 2000 to 2021, an estimated 449,026 active-duty U.S. service members experienced a TBI. These injuries were often caused by combat-related incidents, such as explosive blasts, and are considered a “signature injury” of post-9/11 conflicts.

The vast majority of these injuries are considered mild, but a “mild” diagnosis is cold comfort for those suffering from the syndrome and their family members, as mild symptoms include:

  • Headache
  • Dizziness
  • Nausea and vomiting
  • Fatigue
  • Sensitivity to light or noise
  • Blurred or double vision
  • Balance problems
  • Cognitive: Confusion or difficulty concentrating, memory loss or problems with recall, Difficulty with attention or problem-solving, and slowed thinking or processing speed.
  • Emotional: Irritability or mood swings, anxiety or depression, difficulty sleeping, and changes in appetite.
  • Other: Ringing in the ears, loss of consciousness (briefly), and seizures (rare).

The following 2023 news segment presents a pretty good overview of the epidemic. Note that, as of this posting, it has only received 235 views.

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Democrats Once Again Show Veterans Come Last

The way a nation treats its veterans speaks louder than any patriotic slogan. Today, in the middle of a government shutdown, Democrats in Washington are once again showing that veterans are not their priority. 

Instead of ensuring our troops get paid on time, they are holding up a clean Republican funding bill in pursuit of subsidies and benefits for illegal immigrants. 

This indifference is not new—it reflects a pattern in American history where veterans, even those who sacrificed the most, have too often been forgotten.

That reality was made chillingly clear when Sapphire Dingler, a graduate student in public history, unearthed disturbing testimony in recently digitized U.S. archives. 

The records detailed atrocities committed by Japanese doctors during World War II against Allied prisoners of war—including Americans. 

One doctor, Hisakichi Tokuda, inspired by the infamous Unit 731, conducted gruesome experiments such as injecting soy milk intravenously into captives. 

Men suffered seizures, collapsed, and died. Their fates were recorded in dusty files that had gone largely unread for decades.

These stories were not isolated. In 1945, Italian officer Ernesto Saxida was subjected to repeated injections before dying in agony. 

American prisoners were experimented on at Kyushu Imperial University, their deaths later disguised in official records as casualties of the atomic bomb. 

Testimony at the Yokohama War Crimes Trials confirmed what many never knew: Western POWs were not spared from the horrors of Japanese medical experimentation. 

Some were literally cut open alive. And yet, for decades, these truths were obscured or buried, their memory erased twice—once by their deaths, and again by history’s silence.

Groups like Pacific Atrocities Education are now trying to correct that silence by bringing attention to the Pacific front’s forgotten brutality. 

But their work underscores a shameful fact: America has not always stood up for its veterans or even preserved their stories. At times, our government actively covered them up. 

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Waste Of The Day: Veterans’ Hospital Equipment Is Missing

Topline: The Veterans Health Administration has lost an estimated 5% of its reusable medical equipment worth at least $211 million — including exam tables, computers and microscopes — and “will continue to do so if processes are not improved,” according to a new audit from the Veterans Affairs inspector general.

Key facts: VA hospitals own over 2 million pieces of nonexpendable equipment that is meant to be used for two years or more, valued at $12 billion. Federal auditors recently visited hospitals to see if the VA was properly tracking the equipment and found that thousands of items had disappeared.

The auditors estimated that a third of the equipment — 537,000 items — is in a different location than inventory records claim, and an additional 75,500 items are missing entirely.

It’s possible there is even more missing equipment, because the VA is only required to keep track of inventory worth more than $5,000.

Some of the nonexpendable equipment is tracked using electronic tags, but some of the tags have dead batteries or only show what building the item is in and not what room.

The VA also uses an “inventory by exception” system in which items that have their location recorded during routine maintenance do not need to be included in annual inventory reports for up to 24 months, even though most items are required to be logged every 12 months. Auditors wrote that “a lot can go wrong, including losing equipment,” because of the inventory-by-exception system.

There are also staffing issues contributing to the missing equipment. Some VA employees working on inventory could not search for items because they did not have the keys to all the rooms in the hospital. Some hospitals have staffing levels below 40%, which employees said made it harder to fill out inventory reports on time.

Search all federal, state and local salaries and vendor spending with the world’s largest government spending database at OpenTheBooks.com. 

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Veterans Affairs’ Numbers Humiliate the Military: Mandates Weren’t About Health or Readiness, They Were About Control, Says Whistleblower

While there is a growing wave in skepticism towards all vaccines within the Department of Defense after the illegal enforcement of the COVID-19 shot, a whistleblower has come forward to present information indicating that employees within Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) have previously expressed similar doubts, especially regarding the flu vaccine.

The recent news stories of a Marine Corps officer, Air Force Major Brennan Schilperoort (whose pay has been restored), Army Sergeant Dan McGriff, (a pseudonym), and  Air National Guard Technical Sergeant Tony Oslin reveal the Department of Defense’s current disdain for service members seeking religious accommodation or medical exemption for the flu shot.

Has VA been more forgiving with its employees, given that they are more frequently in contact with the elderly compared to the typical service member?

The Gateway Pundit spoke to whistleblower Sonny Fleeman, who emphasized his opinions are entirely his own and do not reflect the views of the United States Government, the Department of Veterans Affairs, or any organization he is currently or has previously been associated with.

When Fleeman submitted a FOIA request to the Department of Veterans Affairs in February 2025, the agency was still requiring COVID-19 and flu shots for its healthcare employees.

“I wanted to see how many of those on the inside—the doctors, nurses, and staff who actually live with the consequences—were requesting exemptions,” he explained. “That number would reflect the real sentiment of healthcare workers rather than a tightly controlled narrative being sold to the public,” he suspected.

“To sharpen the comparison,” Fleeman also asked about flu shot exemptions, and “the results were shocking.” In 2024, close to 100,000 VA healthcare workers—approximately 25 percent of its total staff—were granted exemptions from the flu shot mandate for medical or religious reasons.

“That’s one in four employees across the largest healthcare system in the United States, and possibly the world, yet the VA still functioned,” he pointed out. For him, “The data shatters the military’s claim that mandates were ‘operationally necessary.’”

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Psilocybin Can ‘Maximize’ Recovery From Traumatic Brain Injury, Scientific Review Concludes

Psilocybin, a main chemical component in psychedelic mushrooms, could play a beneficial role in patients recovering from traumatic brain injury (TBI), according to a new scientific review published in the journal Brain Science.

Reviewing 29 published studies about the use of psilocybin in patients with TBI, a three-person team from Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine and Hackensack Meridian’s JFK Johnson Rehabilitation Institute concluded that assisted psilocybin use “may have benefits in TBI by reducing inflammation, promoting neuroplasticity and neuroregeneration, and alleviating associated mood disorders.”

That conclusion, along with “positive findings in related fields, like treatment for depression and addiction, highlight the necessity for more extensive clinical trials on psilocybin’s role in TBI recovery,” authors wrote.

“The research on psilocybin as a therapeutic agent shows promise for its application in TBI in theory,” the new review says, “but it requires more in-depth studies.”

The report points to psilocybin’s apparent anti-inflammatory properties and its ability to promote the production of new neurons and connections in the brain. It also says the drug’s antidepressant properties could be helpful given the comparatively high rates of depression in TBI patients.

But the new paper also flags “concerns regarding potential ‘bad trips’ and other possible side effects,” emphasizing the “need for more controlled clinical trials to establish safe and effective protocols.”

Notably, the review found no indication that classical psychedelics were associated with an increase risk of seizures, which authors said was important given the heightened incidence of seizures already associated with TBI.

Authors emphasized that federal restrictions on psilocybin limit researchers’ abilities to easily conduct trials, writing that although “decriminalization efforts in the United States are indicative of growing interest, its federal Schedule I classification limits rigorous scientific exploration.”

Overall, the paper says, “psilocybin treatment with current therapeutic practices has the potential to maximize TBI recovery, thus providing a novel method to enhance treatment for people dealing with this persistent condition.”

The research comes amid a renewed interest in psychedelics to treat mental health and medical conditions, including TBI and post-traumatic stress disorder (PSTD), especially in military veterans.

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Veteran With PTSD Can Sue the Cops Who Arrested Him for Panhandling and Tased His Service Dog, Court Rules

A homeless veteran arrested for panhandling—and whose service dog was tased by law enforcement—can move forward with his lawsuit against police and the city, a federal court ruled this week.

Apart from the individual implications, the case also raises broader questions about the constitutionality of anti-panhandling ordinances, which have suffered defeats in various courts in recent years.

In October 2021, law enforcement in Gastonia, North Carolina, arrived at an intersection where Joshua Rohrer was standing on a median after a 911 caller phoned in to report Rohrer was “using [his] dog to make people feel sorry” for him. An officer requested backup from the Gastonia Police Department (GPD), and the scene quickly became somewhat of a circus, with several patrol cars and a slew of officers dispatched to address an alleged panhandler.

An officer demanded to see Rohrer’s identification, after which he furnished his Veteran ID card. Police said that did not suffice, promptly arresting him and ultimately booking him for solicitation and resisting arrest. (You can watch the bodycam footage here and decide for yourself if he resisted arrest.)

During that interaction, an officer tased Rohrer’s service dog, Sunshine, who ran off and was later hit by a car, killing her.

The government would ultimately drop the charges against Rohrer. But even after the ordeal, law enforcement has continued to subject him “to a relentless campaign of harassment” according to his complaint against the City of Gastonia and several officers with the GPD. It alleges violations of his First and Fourth Amendment rights, including for excessive force and the unreasonable seizure of his service animal.

Rohrer’s complaint also notes that the GPD has posted “hundreds of statements that belittle and disparage Mr. Rohrer and spread false and misleading information about the incident” on social media.

“You also know that two grand juries supported the charges and that Mr Rohrer and his private legal team could have challenged the charges in court but that’s not what they chose to do now was it?”the city posted on its official GPD page. “Instead they accepted the plea deal that was offered to him. Perhaps to avoid having an actual court date where evidence and testimony would have been presented. Who knows why they chose to accept the deal offered.” Rohrer did not, in fact, plead guilty to anything tied to the October arrest.

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Psychedelic Retreats ‘Significantly Improved’ Mental Health For Military Veterans With PTSD And Depression, Study Finds

A new study of military veterans who attended psychedelics retreats finds that psilocybin and ayahuasca both yielded significant improvements in participants’ mental health, including reductions in symptoms of PTSD, depression and anxiety as well as improved sleep, quality of life and post-deployment reintegration.

The report, published in the journal Brain and Behavior, describes the research as “the first study to investigate psychedelic retreats as a holistic therapy for veterans’ mental health alongside community reintegration.”

“Psilocybin and ayahuasca retreats significantly improved veterans’ mental well-being, quality of life, PTSD, anxiety, depression, sleep, concussion, and post-deployment reintegration,” it says, adding that the retreats “could provide a treatment framework to aid veterans’ recovery by addressing psychological well-being, communal factors, and reintegration into civilian life.”

The study followed 55 veterans who self-enrolled in psychedelic retreats using psilocybin or ayahuasca following a program by Heroic Hearts Project, a nonprofit that connects veterans with psychedelic therapy in jurisdictions where it’s legal.

“For psilocybin, the substance was taken as a tea brewed from dried psilocybin mushrooms with individualized doses determined by the retreat staff between 1.5 and 3.5 g for Session 1 and between 3 and 5 g for Session 2,” the report says. “One gram boosters of psilocybin were offered one hour from the initial dose.”

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U.S. House Approves Amendment Allowing VA Doctors to Recommend Medical Cannabis to Veterans

The U.S. House of Representatives has approved an amendment that would allow Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) physicians to recommend medical marijuana to veterans in states where it’s legal.

The measure, introduced by Representatives Brian Mast (R-FL) and Dave Joyce (R-OH), was adopted as part of the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act (H.R. 3944). The overall bill is expected to receive a final vote on the House floor soon.

The amendment would prohibit the VA from using federal funds to enforce a longstanding policy that prevents VA doctors from assisting patients with enrolling in state-approved medical marijuana programs. Under current rules, VA physicians are barred from discussing or filling out the necessary paperwork for veterans to access legal marijuana, even in the 39 states that allow its use for medical purposes.

The amendment states:

“None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available to the Department of Veterans Affairs in this Act may be used to enforce Veterans Health Directive 1315 as it relates to:

(1) the policy stating that ‘VHA providers are prohibited from completing forms or registering Veterans for participation in a State-approved marijuana program’;

(2) the directive for the ‘Deputy Under Secretary for Health for Operations and Management’ to ensure that ‘medical facility Directors are aware that it is VHA policy for providers to assess Veteran use of marijuana but providers are prohibited from recommending, making referrals to or completing paperwork for Veteran participation in State marijuana programs’; and

(3) the directive for the ‘VA Medical Facility Director’ to ensure that ‘VA facility staff are aware of the following’ ‘[t]he prohibition recommending, making referrals to or completing forms and registering Veterans for participation in State-approved marijuana programs.

Two bills have been filed this year in the House that would take a similar approach in easing access to medical cannabis for veterans, the Veterans Cannabis Use for Safe Healing Act and the Veterans Equal Access Act, filed by Rep. Gregory Steube (R-FL) and Brian Mast (R-FL).

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Veterans deserve change. US should reschedule cannabis now.

When our nation’s heroes return home, they often face a quiet suffering — something I have seen happen so often in my peers. As a combat veteran and an advocate for those who have worn the uniform, I know that so many of us face these challenges long after we return home. Post-traumatic stress (PTS) is a battlefield of its own — invisible, relentless, and too often fought alone.

Over the years, I’ve dedicated my life to improving the lives of our veterans, whether serving as a Veterans Fellow and Lead Policy Advisor on Military and Veterans Affairs to Sen. Chuck Grassley, leading within the Iowa Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), or conducting academic research focused on veterans’ issues. One thing has become undeniably clear: it’s time to reschedule cannabis as a Schedule III substance under federal law, a change that is backed by President Donald Trump, which would open the door for unlocking its therapeutic potential for veterans suffering from PTS and other chronic illnesses.

Currently, cannabis remains a Schedule I substance — the same category as heroin — defined as having “no accepted medical use” and a “high potential for abuse.” This is not only scientifically outdated, but also morally indefensible. Veterans are not asking for a miracle cure. We are asking for options. We are asking for the freedom to explore alternative treatments when conventional therapies — prescription medications, talk therapy, or exposure therapy — fall short. For many veterans, they do. And for some, cannabis has helped where nothing else has.

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Texas Military Veterans Call On Governor To Veto Proposed Hemp THC Ban That Critics Say Would Harm Patients And Consumers

Veterans advocates in Texas are calling on Gov. Greg Abbott (R) to veto legislation that would outlaw all hemp-derived cannabinoid products containing any detectable THC, saying loss of access to the products would harm veterans, seniors, medical patients and everyday consumers.

“Banning legal hemp would cause irreversible harm to communities across the state,” the organization Texas Veterans of Foreign Wars said on social media on Wednesday, drawing attention to a petition urging Abbott to reject the measure that was sent to him early this week. “Stand up for your rights and livelihoods.”

The petition itself is from the Texas Hemp Business Council, a trade group representing the state’s roughly $8 billion hemp industry, which critics of the bill say would be decimated if the measure becomes law. Texas’s hemp industry employs 53,000 people, the group said.

“We, the undersigned citizens of Texas, call on Governor Abbott to reject SB 3 and any proposals banning products containing legal hemp,” the petition says. “Hemp is not a threat but a resource that helps countless Texans lead healthier, more fulfilling lives.”

“SB 3 would deprive Texans of natural alternatives for treating chronic pain, anxiety, and sleep disorders throughout the state,” it adds. “A hemp ban also threatens small businesses and farmers in Texas who depend on hemp production for their livelihoods.”

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