Stand For The Troops

Stand for the Troops (SFTT) is a 501(c)3 Educational Foundation established by the late Col. David H. Hackworth and his wife, Eilhys England, in 1997 to demand and insure that our frontline troops receive the best available leadership, training and...

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Til Valhalla Brothers!

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And a special hug to those (and their suffering families) who still carry the silent wounds of war!

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Six excellent, easy-to-remember tips for when you encounter a service dog team. It’s so easy to forget that service dogs are essentially “medical equipment” for those with disabilities. Thank you for reading and passing along. ‪#‎ServiceDogs‬ ‪#‎PTSD‬ ‪#‎ShelterDogs‬ ‪#‎InvisibleWounds

http://www.petmd.com/dog/slideshows/care/service-dog-etiquette-tips

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#servicedogs save lives.  Let’s support our #vets

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Veterans Day Concert in NYC Sponsored by SFTT

SFTT hosts Benefit Concert for Veterans at NYC Society for Ethical Culture on Nov 11. See Judy Collins, Little Anthony and more! Order Tickets Now!

Get your tickets now for this great benefit concert celebrating our Veterans. 

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Join SFTT for a Night of Music and Laughter to Benefit our Vets.  Veteran’s Day in NYC.  Special guest appearance by Judy Collins with guest performers like Little Anthony, The Manhattan Transfer, Bettye LaVette, Michael Bacon and many more . . .

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Veterans Day concert in NYC - A Night of Music and Laughter to Benefit our Vets.  Join us

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Karzai wants U.S. to reduce military operations in Afghanistan In the starkest terms to date, President Karzai said that the visibility and intensity of US/NATO operations must be reduced and that US SOF night raids end. "It's not desirable for the Afghan people either to have 100,000 or more foreign troops going around the country endlessly," he said. These were not off the cuff remarks, but instead provided to reporters in an hour-long sit-down interview (an exasperated General Petreaus responded – see associated news report).  Karzai continues to highlight that US/NATO operations are exacerbating the war fatigue Afghans experience...

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In an alarming article written by C. Todd Lewis and issued by the Army News Service, 1 in 5 troops may be undeployable by 2012. Highlights: By the time the Army meets its goal to have Soldiers home for twice the time they're deployed, the service could face the problem of having nearly one in five Soldiers unable to deploy.  Today, nearly 14.5 percent of Soldiers in a brigade combat team are unable...

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As indicated earlier, SFTT is thrilled to have Dr. Henry Grayson as Chairman of SFTT's Medical Task Force to help develop effective programs to treat our brave men and women suffering from PTSD. PTSD for veterans of our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is now reaching epidemic proportions. Government studies suggest that 1 in 5 veterans suffers from PTSD. The symptoms of PTSD manifest themselves differently from person to person - but make no mistake - PTSD is a serious problem and wrecks havoc on the lives of our citizen warriors and their loved ones. Dr. Henry...

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Karzai Agrees to Seat New Afghan Parliament Afghanistan’s fragile government still stands after President Karzai’s decision this past weekend to inaugurate the newly elected Afghan government this Wednesday, January 26, 2011.  Karzai stepped back from the precipice he created after “intense pressure from legislators and the international community.”  During the crisis, not much happy talked leaked out of US/NATO in Kabul, and it took a UN inspired rally of Western allies to “break the silence on the crisis.” Now this one is not over yet – anything can (and does) still happen to reverse or amend...

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Several news organizations have commented on a new treatment using dream therapy to treat PTSD.  In the proposed treatment, "a soldier waking up from a PTSD nightmare can put on 3D vision goggles and enter an animated world populated with comforting sights. The world will be one he’s built himself in visits to his clinic, where, using biofeedback to track his response, he has trained himself to relax when he sees these images." The program reminds me of Stanly Kubrick's Clockwork Orange, where "society" tries to rehabilitate the main character Alex DeLarge through a programmed treatment to...

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By Roger Charles On Friday of last week, MajGen Jeffrey Sorenson of the US Army stood up at a press conference and attempted, one more time, to drive a stake through the heart of that pesky Dragon Skin body armor, but, unlike the brittle SAPI plates of the Interceptor Body Armor (IBA), Dragon Skin has proven capable of stopping multiple hits. Sorenson will, no doubt, be rewarded for his extraordinary display of E-ring valor -- he tried, and gave it his all. I expect the citation for his end of tour award will include...

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With a 2,600 page Health Reform Package, one doesn't have time to read the fine print.  At other times, US government policy statements are often so broad in scope that one has difficulty piecing together the implications. In a recent address that was not picked up by the press,  Admiral Michael G. Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, articulated what some consider to be a change in US War Doctrine.  In a fascinating article picked up by Fred Edwards in Crosshairs - Miltary Matters in Review, Mr. Edwards notes that Admiral Mullen may be laying out a new War Doctrine for the...

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SFTT's mission is to insure that our frontline troops have the best available leadership, equipment and training.   With the growing incidence of PTSD and TBI among military veterans who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan, SFTT recently launched their "You are not Alone" initiative to provide greater focus on diagnosing and providing better treatment for our brave warriors who suffer from these debilitating injuries. While not shy to tackle issues affecting the well-being of men and women in uniform, we do try to avoid subjects which do not directly contribute to the fulfillment of our mission.   On...

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U.S. troops battle to hand off a valley resistant to Afghan governance Some truth finally from the battlefield.  An infantry battalion commander concludes that his task force is “locked in an endless war for an irrelevant valley.”   Ask any Soldier and Marine that has served in the Pech Valley, Kunar Province since 2005 and they will tell you the same thing. It’s about time commanders are finally telling it like it is.  "There is nothing strategically important about this terrain…we fight here because the enemy is here. The enemy fights here because we are here." ...

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Mental health problems and self-destructive behavior have always been difficult subjects to discuss, let alone diagnose and cure.   Since the 2008 Rand Corporation study on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder ("PTSD") entitled Invisible Wounds of War:   Psychological and Cognitive Injuries, Their Consequences, and Services to Assist Recovery,  there has been growing preoccupation with the high incidence of psychological disorders affecting military men and women serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.  According to the Rand study, it is estimated that one in five veterans suffers from some form of mental disorder. In February of this year,  Mental Health America ("MHA") hosted a...

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Policy -- Taliban’s Elite, Aided by NATO, Join Talks for Afghan Peace http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/20/world/asia/20afghan.html?ref=world Key highlights: Taliban Quetta and Peshawar Shura and Haqqani Network are participating in Afghan peace talks NATO/ISAF is providing transport and security to delegates from safe-havens to Kabul Delegates are senior members Analysis:  These talks have become a necessary component of an overall strategy to obtain a political solution because a viable military solution does not exist – we cannot “kill/capture” our way to victory in Afghanistan. Policy -- Petraeus rewrites...