He was a soldier before he was a salesman. Charles Nicholson joined the National Guard in 1975, served six years as a telecommunications specialist before moving on to a life as a traveling salesman, driving the interstate from Charlotte to Greenville, South Carolina, pitching transmission fluid and coolants to car dealerships along I-85. "It's a fine job as far as it goes, but honestly, I felt like there was something I was supposed to be doing to make a difference, to touch people's lives," he says.
Then Nicholson read my article in The Nation, the story of Sergeant Chuck Luther, who had been badly wounded by mortar fire while serving in Iraq, then held in a closet by the U.S. Army for over a month, under enforced sleep deprivation, until he agreed to sign papers saying he was ill before Iraq and thus not eligible for benefits. Since 2001, over 22,600 soldiers have been pressed into signing these documents, affirming that their wounds were caused by a pre-existing condition, "personality disorder." By making these soldiers ineligible for a lifetime of benefits, the military is saving over $12.5 billion in disability and medical care.
Personality disorder (PD) has been cited as the cause for everything from deafness following a rocket blast to shrapnel wounds to profuse vaginal bleeding, denying benefits to soldiers who have earned Purple Hearts and served multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. Sgt. Luther was discharged with PD after a blow to his head during combat shut down vision in his right eye.
"I read Luther's story and all the disgusting details: how they blasted heavy metal music at him at night, how they injected him with sleeping meds when he tried to escape the closet. I sat down, and I just cried," says Nicholson. "It was so outrageous. I thought, 'Somebody's got to tell somebody about this.'" That night Nicholson started a Facebook page, "Stop Personality Disorder Discharges for our Wounded Soldiers." He was expecting a few friends and family to join. He was wrong.
Within hours the page had 100 members. By the next day that number had quintupled. Today, six weeks after founding the group, "Stop Personality Disorder" has over 3,600 members and is growing by about 100 members a day.
"I get emails now, about 25 to 30 a day, from veterans who have gone through this," he says. "They're thanking me, saying, 'I didn't know other soldiers are going through this. I didn't know people knew this was happening.' ... I got an email a couple days ago from a teenage girl. Her mother served in Iraq and was discharged with personality disorder after she was gang raped."
Nicholson says the horror stories have shaken him — and left him inspired to push further. "When I started the group, I thought maybe the page could become a place where soldiers discharged with PD could share their stories and get in touch with each other. Now," he says, "I really believe we can stop this."
The veteran is organizing a massive phone call and email campaign, urging members to flood the White House on Memorial Day with letters and calls demanding President Obama once again take up this issue. As a senator, Obama put forward a bill to halt personality disorder discharges, but the bill died quietly, as the president never spoke about his bill or the PD scandal during his presidential run. Today the White House says the president "continues to be concerned."
For Nicholson, that's not good enough. "We can stop these discharges," he says. "It's just a matter of getting the information out there. I have faith that when people find out what's going on, they'll be as outraged as I am. They'll demand change."
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http://stoppersonalitydisorder.com/
See the links for our petition.
http://stoppersonalitydisorder.com/
From that moment..I've watied and waited..to See...what the "Response" would be.
HP carried a "Moment"..basically..a "Couple paragraphs long Treatment" of the "Cover Story"..that was it..then this story..about the "Page"...
But..the "MSM"? Almost..literally..almost "Zero!".
And Websites like "Prison Planet"..and "Patriot" organizations...Wall St. Journal...etc...???
Nothing!
No Exageration..this Major..major...surreal...horrific...Major Revelation..is receiving almost...Zero "Exposure".
Whats more..as of this moment...I have yet to hear of Any..as in..."A-N-Y"..."Response"..from even One...One...Single..Solitary..."Representative"..of "Government"!
Not.........One!
I honestly..believe..this Revelation..this incredible reality...this......Attrocity...is being "Concealed"..with calculated intent..to the best of the ability of multiple "Government Organizations".
This is the Torture..and Coerced Sigining of Documents...this is Multiple Felonies being Perpetrated Against American Men And Women...oh...uhhh..Injured..American Men and Women...by Our..and Their...'Government'!
Why this's not "Headline News"..why this's not a 24/7 cycle of recriminations and finger pointing...why this's not already a "Federal Investigation"...and a...Major...Class Action lawsuit...is not "Only" a "Question"...its "The" "Question".
This's perhaps the clearest indication we've yet received as to the "True Nature" of the "War On Terror"...the True nature of the "Officers" and "Bureaucrats" that are in fact...destroying Liberty...
Welcome to the War!
The author forgot to mention that Chuck Luther started Disposalable Warriors, a soldiers advocacy group. Soon after founding the group, he discovered a threatening note on his windshield. "Back off or you and your family will pay!!" it read, in careful, black ink cursive. Weeks later, thieves broke into the home of a veterans' organizer who worked closely with Luther, taking nothing but the files of the soldiers they were assisting.
You can visit disposablewarriors.com to read more about this issue.
It does not comfort me at all that the Commander in Chief "continues to be concerned." He should "start to be outraged" and "ready to clean house" instead. How is it that the notion of applying the 14th Amendment in the military (e.g. ending DADT) requires years of study and investigation, but this incredible abuse of our troops merely causes "concern?"
Gates and Mullen and the Commander in Chief had better get going on righting this wrong. Now. Try this: Don't Ask our soliders to forgo their benefits, and Don't Tell us that the military will not hunt down the perpetrators and dishonourably discharge them.
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After a doctor with the First Cavalry division wrote he was out for "secondary gain," Chuck Luther was imprisoned in a six- by eight-foot isolation chamber, ridiculed by the guards, denied regular meals and showers and kept awake by perpetual lights and blasting heavy metal music---abuses similar to the punishments inflicted on terrorist suspects by the CIA.
The sergeant took a Chapter 5-13 PD discharge in order to escape his confinement, becoming one of 22,600 soldiers so separated since 2001, a discharge that relieves the Pentagon of the responsibility and cost of long-term care for the wounded. An Army major told Luther to sign the discharge papers or "you're going to be here a lot longer." Luther recalled, "They had me broke down. At that point, I just wanted to get home." Many of the PD discharge recipients are soldiers who have served two and three tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, author Kors writes.
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and I am angrier than ever.
I will have to write the White House directly on Memorial Day because I can't sign the Facebook thing wo being a member.
whitehouse.gov/contact
are there any other places to sign and to this cause besides Facebook?
http://stoppersonalitydisorder.com/
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/2/stop-personality-disorder-discharges-for-our-wounded-soldiers
All of you also know that we were not attacked by anyone but our own government on 9/11/01 and if you still believe that we were attacked by terrorist than you are in serious denial. Now this gets out. What is it going to take before we fight back these greedy corporations and the politicians that they own? When are we as Americans going to stop this madness? We need an all inclusive movement and not the damn Tea Party. As long as they can keep us separated by race, class, whatever, we will keep getting crapped on. If this is not enough evidence for us to go after Bush and his administration for the big WMD lie and getting us into this giant heap of feces than we get what we deserve. Our troops are not garbage that you throw away after you have used them all up. This is sick!
How about launching a criminal investigation?
on Americans by Americans. This country has a collective psychosis thanks to corporate media.
I am sickened to pay taxes and support endless war and torture and I am actively investigating moving to another country.