35- Meeting 12Sept2009 and upcoming events [22:23m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In this episode of the H21 Austin, Texas, Southern Chapter Combat Infantrymen’s Association, podcast, we give you an update of the upcoming events for the rest of 2009, as well as a summary of the meeting held on 12 September 2009.

We wish to welcome our newest member, Kevin Scharmen, who is a SouthWest Asia CIB recipient and still in the Army. He is the liaison with the 82nd Airborne Division Association Wounded Warrior Program at Ft. Sam Houston and Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas.

Welcome, Kevin!

In this audio episode, we go at great lengths to detail each of the line items in the agenda of the meeting held on 12 September 2009 at the VFW Post 8787 meeting room in Austin, Texas.

For a look at the pdf file of the 1-page agenda, click here:  .

You can look at the items we discussed and then hear the details of the items in the podcast audio episode.

Paramount among the topics were:

1.  The POW/MIA ceremony participation on 18 September 2009 in downtown Austin. For details, contact Tony Martinez (cell number 512 228 7045).

2. If anyone wants to go to the Branson, Missouri, National Convention and reunion, the chapter will reimburse $75 for the attendance fee. Please contact Tony Martinez, Financial Officer of the chapter. More details about the National Convention and Reunion in Branson are on page 1 and pages 14-17 of the Blue Badge quarterly newsletter from National.

3. Upcoming meetings:

- October 24, 2009- scheduled joint meeting, hosted by the 82nd Airborne Division Association in San Antonio. More information on this in the next podcast episode, as well as the mailing of the newsletter.

- November 11, 2009- Meet at 7:30 a.m. on the Congress Ave. bridge between 1st Street and Riverside Drive, for participation in the Austin Veterans’ Day Parade and ceremony. Members should be in CIB Association uniform.

- Dec. 5 or 12, 2009- Austin chapter will host a family holiday social event and pot-luck gathering. More details to be provided later.

- 9 January 2010- The chapter will have its monthly meeting in San Antonio, Texas. More details on this later.

- 6 February 2010- The chapter will have its monthly meeting in the Fort Hood, Texas, area (e.g., Killeen or Harker Heights or Copperas Cove, etc.). More details on this later.

- The March and April meetings will resume in Austin, Texas. One of these months will have the chapter host the joint meeting with the 82nd Airborne Division Association at VFW Post 8787.

For more details on other items, please feel free to listen to the 22-minute audio podcast.

Copyright (c) 2009, Matrix Solutions Corporation and the Combat Infantrymen’s Association. All Rights Reserved.

 

 33- Seeking ways to help combat veteran with treatment- Interview with Gayle Temkin [19:33m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In this episode of the Southern Branch, H21, Austin Chapter, of the Combat Infantrymen’s Association, we bring you an excerpt from an interview that we had with Gayle Temkin, who has over 30 years experience in treatment of physical and cognitive issues.

In this informal discussion, Gayle seeks for ways to help the Combat Veteran with experiential treatment–either by trying to get a funding grant that would support the combat veteran audience, or by recommending to organizations (such as the VA) the type of treatments needed for veterans still suffering from the aftermath of combat.

From this audio episode, it is interesting to note that many people — even the professionals who provide healing treatment for others — have a difficult time in trying to understand the plight, the suffering, the symptoms and the actual episodes that the veterans suffer. The textbook-type treatments have proven somewhat ineffective when dealing with actual Vietnam Combat Veterans.

How true is that addage: “if you haven’t been in combat, then you can’t be expected to really understand.”

Gayle’s practice has given her a wealth of experience from which to draw, and her recommendations are such that the VA should note.

In addition to her therapy practice for over 30 years, she is also trying to advance her Coalition for Emotional Literacy.

However, unless the formal organizations receive either grant funding from this administration; or unless the VA seeks to really help the Vietnam Veterans (and not just “set them aside” because they have to make room for those returning from SouthWest Asia during this present conflict), then these types of treatment alteranatives that can really help veterans may fall on deaf ears.

However, it is great to realize that there are those individuals who really do care about the appropriate treatment that should be given to the veterans who are suffering from PTSD and other symptoms, so that they can have a chance to improve their constant adjustment to the “World” upon their return from their tours of combat or improve their quality of life after suffering for over 30 to 40 years.

Copyright (c) 2009, Matrix Solutions Corporation. All Rights Reserved.