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Remembering the Fallen | 3

Page 2 | THE RED 7 | Friday, May 29, 2015

By ELIZABETH M. COLLINS

Soldiers magazine

FORT MEADE, Md. — They are strong and they are resilient. They are adaptable. They are well-trav-elled and fiercely patriotic. They are bright, inquisitive and eager to help out, whether that is at home or in their communities. They have ad-vantages many kids do not: parents with jobs and steady incomes, health care, safe housing, good education systems and access to early inter-vention programs.

But they are also children, and they are navigating a new and strange world of school and sports, bullies and gossip, first boyfriends and girlfriends, and puberty and hormones. Growing up is hard. It is scary. It is easy for kids to lose their way. And life can become harder and scarier when kids have to move every three years or when their parents miss portions of their childhoods because they are regu-larly deployed. And it becomes twice as hard when those parents come home changed from post-traumatic stress or traumatic brain injuries.

While most Army kids tend to handle one or two deployments well, and as a whole are doing great, experts say the trouble can start with repeated, back-to-back deployments.

DISTRESS“Kids often experience more

anxiety,” said Dr. Michael Faran, a psychiatrist, retired colonel and chief of the Child, Adolescent and Family Behavioral Health Office, or CAFB-HO, at Army Medical Command, ex-plaining that while there is not a lot of data, some studies suggest about 30 percent of children will have dif-ficulties as a result of deployment. “There’s an increase in depression and anxiety. There can be a decrease in academic performance. In some adolescents, there’s an increase in use of drugs and alcohol. And there has been more gang activity report-ed in some teens.”

There have even been reports of higher levels of suicidal ideations among children who have been through numerous parental de-ployments, said Dr. Stephen Cozza, a retired colonel, psychiatrist, re-searcher, professor and associate

director of the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress at the Uniformed Services University in Bethesda, Maryland.

“That that doesn’t necessarily mean that military children are men-tally ill, but that they’re distressed,” he said. “They express it in a variety of ways. The other thing that’s im-portant to recognize is that … the majority of children are doing well despite those challenges.”

Warning signs of stress in chil-dren vary by age, but can include anything from developmental re-gressions such as bedwetting in very small children to a lack of inter-est in formerly favorite activities to anger and risk-taking behavior in teenagers.

Parents should not equate good behavior with mental health, how-ever. Faran cautioned that parents can easily overlook children, who withdraw because they are quiet and they are not causing trouble. “They may be getting very depressed or anxious, and no one is aware of it,” he said. “So these kids stop talking and they used to talk to the parents. That is a red flag.”

Signs of anxiety - the most com-mon disorder in military children - also include separation anxiety, fears for the health of the parent left at home, excessive worry, sleep problems and frequent physical complaints such as headaches or stomachaches.

Maisley Paxton, a child clinical psychologist on Fort Meade, Mary-land, said that while parents should expect to see some changes in their children in the period immediately after a permanent change of sta-tion move or a deployment or even a homecoming, they should not let any pronounced differences persist for long before seeking help. Pax-ton also recommended that children be evaluated by their pediatricians, especially if they are experiencing those frequent aches and pains.

Any child who self harms, threat-ens to kill herself or says he wishes he was dead, needs immediate help.

EARLY INTERVENTION“People always think that it’s

a phase,” said Paxton, adding this attitude is especially common in military families. It is all too easy to blame the current duty station or the

local school and teachers for a child’s behavior or sudden poor grades, and just hope that things will be different after the next move. Occasionally, that is a valid belief. “However, the news that parents need to have is that the earlier they get the interven-tion, the earlier they get the treat-ment, the better the prognosis and the better the outcome.”

“I think it’s important for a lot of parents to recognize that kids don’t always use the same words and ter-minology that we do,” said retired Lt. Col. Patti Johnson, psychologist and Faran’s deputy chief at CAFBHO. She explained that many children express their emotions differently than parents might expect - depres-sion often manifests itself as anger in teenagers, for example. She urged parents to see their children’s men-tal health as every bit as important as their physical health, and to read-ily seek care just like they would for a medical illness.

“Parents think it will go away,” Faran said, “and then by the time they’re teenagers, it can be a big is-sue.” He said that the Army is rolling out the Child and Family Behavioral Health System, or CAFBHS, to bet-ter connect Family members with top-notch mental health care. It in-cludes traditional behavioral health care, but also integrates care into primary care clinics and schools, the places issues are often first identi-fied in children and teens.

Elements of CAFBHS are on 20 installations, and will be imple-mented Army wide by 2017. “The CAFBHS is a collaborative program with the Army medical homes, work-ing with the primary care folks … to ensure that our kids are first identi-fied if they are having problems, and then that they’re getting services they need. … Once it’s out there, it’s going to reach more Army youth than we have in the past.”

Under the umbrella of CAFBHS, the Army has also instituted the School Behavioral Health Program, embedding psychiatrists, psycholo-gists and social workers in 46 schools on eight installations, with plans to expand it to 107 on-post schools.

Paxton, who is the program chief for Fort Meade, explained that chil-dren are referred to the program from a variety of sources: parents, teachers, school administrators and

pediatricians. Poor grades and poor behavior in school are big red flags, so she said the ability to observe children in their environments is invaluable for practitioners. “It’s not unusual for you to be able to see a child right there in the moment when they need you.

“We get to talk to the teachers. We get to talk to the administrators. We get to talk to the school staff and advise and counsel them. Sometimes with permission we can sit in the classroom,” she said, adding that it is also easy for parents and kids to get to the appointments because they do not have to go anywhere. They miss less work and school.

Many of the issues practitioners see in military kids - attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, depression, mood disorders and personality is-sues - may have little or nothing to do with their military upbringings, the experts stressed. Most of the time, the same kids would have the same issues in the civilian world. With a little professional help, the majority will be fine.

PARENTS WITH INVISIBLE WOUNDSIt is the children of parents, who

return from war with their own wounds, with PTSD, with depres-sion, with TBIs, who most concern experts because “those kinds of in-cidents tend to be highly disruptive to families,” Cozza said. “There’s less structure. There’s more chaos. There are more immediate needs. … There’s a lot of upheaval in fami-lies. Parents may be preoccupied in dealing with the injury so we need to help them draw their attention back to their children.

“Those disorders specifically change parents in ways that can be confusing or complicating for both spouses and children,” he said. “It changes a parent’s personality or makes them more gruff or less engaged, more avoidant, more re-active, getting angry or impulsive. Those can be changes that can be really difficult for kids to understand. First of all, they may not be as physi-cally apparent to a child. They’ve been referred to as invisible injuries, so children can be confused as to why a parent could be acting so dif-

Experts explain mental state of military children

Year No. 5 edition No. 22

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Friday, May 29, 2015 | THE RED 7 | Page 3

Remembering the Fallen

DEVON RAVINE | Daily News

Senior Master Sgt. Steven Bicknell, an Air Force reservist from Duke Field, plays “Amazing Grace” on the bagpipes during the May 21 Memorial Day Ceremony.

DEVON RAVINE | Daily News

Above, roses sit on a stone at the 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) me-morial rock garden engraved with the name of Sgt. Timothy P. Padgett, who was killed in Afghanistan in 2007. Below, Richard Phillips, who was captain of the MV Maersk Alabama when it was hijacked by Somali pirates in 2009, was the guest speaker at the May 21 Memorial Day Ceremony organized by the Army 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne)’s 1st Battalion.

See kIDS Page 8

Page 4 | THE RED 7 | Friday, May 29, 2015 Friday, May 29, 2015 | THE RED 7 | Page 5

By DEVIN GOLDEN

Northwest Florida Daily News

A red carnation flower first ap-peared Saturday at the foot of the All-Veterans Memorial at around 7:40 a.m., 10 minutes into

the 30th Annual Gate to Gate Memorial Race.

As racers veered off Eglin Boulevard to drop them, the color spread. Some run-ners quickly tossed them and twisted back onto the road. Others stopped and took photos of the scene developing. A few took a personal moment to honor those who sacrificed their lives in the United States armed forces.

From the first dropped to the last, Se-nior Master Sergeant Steven Bicknell was there — playing the bagpipes with just more than a few seconds to catch a breath.

The Gate to Gate Memorial race has been a Memorial Day Weekend tradition in the area. Bicknell said he has stood in his spot, protected from the May summer’s heat by a tree’s shade, for at least 12 years. He plays from the moment the lead runner passes the memorial until the last one — at least a 25-minute stretch. He sees the color red grow as the carnations drop slightly to one side or the other of the memorial, which displays a rifle, a soldier’s shoes and a helmet plus the appropriate flags.

“My family has a history of service,” Bicknell said. “My great grandfather was an Army doctor. My grandfather was an Army doctor. My dad was in the Air Force band. I’ve been in the (military) for 30 or 31 years. My son is in the Army. My daughter is in the Air Force. My wife is in the Re-serves out at Duke Field. This is honoring our veterans and soliders that died in com-bat. When you see the amount of runners go by, it’s obviously a big deal.”

Bicknell, originally from Detroit, is a se-nior master sergeant with Duke Field and Navarre resident since 1987. He learned the bagpipes at age 10, thanks to his father, and has fans among the runners and walk-ers in the Gate to Gate race.

“A lot of people wave to me,” he said minutes before this year’s event started. “There are a lot of people that know me since I’ve been around here for a long time. I’ll either give them a head nod or, if I can take my hand off without messing up a note, wave back.”

He’s always there — in the same spot,

around 1 mile into the 4.4-mile and 8.8-mile race, the latter length a new addition to the annual event — along with Tom, who served multiple times over seas but de-clined to give his last name, standing right behind the memorial. The songs include “Amazing Grace,” “America the Beautiful” and all the armed forces songs and hymns.

“The whole thing is a real tribute to the fallen,” said Pensacola resident and Gate to Gate racer Robin Foley, 72, who moved from Ireland nearly three decades ago. “He’s full of wind. It’s perfect.”

Complete results are available on www.eventtiming.com. Bicknell started playing as Zach Daveau, 27, and Geb Kiros, 18, led the pack side by side. Daveau, of Tallahas-see, was the overall male winner with a time of 25 minutes, 3 seconds. Bicknell was playing when Tallahassee resident Renee Cox, 27, raced on to her overall female vic-tory in a time of 29:34.

“I’m a 26-year veteran,” said racer Ray Van Dyne, 46, who works for the Air Force. “It’s inspiring. It kind of brings in the whole memorial and remembering the sacrifice people make.”

Deeper into the pack, the line to drop carnations grew to a halt. It was no longer a drop-while-running ordeal. It is a reason to pause for most — to remember those

who sacrificed.Even though he keeps playing, Bicknell

feels the emotions.“I do my best to understand I’m here to

do my part, play the bagpipes,” he said.He made sure to do his part for every-

one, too.After 99.5 percent of the around 2,000

runners passed the memorial, Bicknell stopped playing, thinking his part was finished.

But around a quarter of a mile behind everyone else was Margaret Bartlett, an 86-year-old Shalimar resident walking the route with a cane. She has been participat-ing in Gate to Gate for at least five years — all five, clock timer Bob White said, with her the last of the field — and her husband and son both served in the military.

“She always does it,” White said. “Every year.”

Once in view, Bicknell captured some extra breath and began playing just for her. He stopped once she, like most everyone else, veered off Eglin Boulevard and added a little more red to the foot of the memo-rial. She noticed the bagpipes — she hears them every year, from the same person.

“I can’t stop since I’m at this blistering pace,” she said, “but I want to tell him, ‘Thank you.’ Can you tell him that for me?”

Thousands run in ‘Gate to Gate’ race to honor a ‘History of Service’

SAMUEL KING JR. | USAF

Arthur Rosenbaum, 70, salutes after dropping a red carnation at the All Wars Memorial during the 30th Anniversary Memorial Gate to Gate run May 23.

SAMUEL KING JR. | USAF

A runner and her child sprint up the final hill toward the finish line during the 30th Anni-versary Memorial Gate to Gate run May 23 at Eglin Air Force Base.

NICK TOMECEK | Daily News

Thousands of runners gathered for the 2015 Gate to Gate, 30th Annual Memorial Run/Ruck/Walk on Eglin Air Force Base on May 23.

NICK TOMECEK | Daily News

Race participants pay their respects at the All Veterans Memorial during the 2015 Gate to Gate, 30th Annual Memorial Run/Ruck/Walk on Eglin Air Force Base.

SAMUEL KING JR. | USAF

At left, the Honor Guard prepares to present the colors during the National Anthem. At right, former base commander, retired Lt. Gen. Gordon For-nell, stands with Brig. Gen. David Harris, 96th Test Wing and current base commander, prior to the 30th Anniversary Memorial Gate to Gate run.

Page 6 | THE RED 7 | Friday, May 29, 2015 Friday, May 29, 2015 | THE RED 7 | Page 7

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of operation to save $58.2 million a year in labor costs.l Reducing store

hours per day to save an-other $29.5 million.l Executing sched-

uled store closings: $27.3 million.l Cutting equivalent

of 200 fulltime staff: $18.8 million.l Streamlining trans-

port of fruits and vegeta-bles to the Pacific: $40.8 million.l Closing commissar-

ies on all holidays: $4.5 million.l Ending DeCA sup-

port of six overseas Navy exchange stores or NEX-Marts where lines of com-missary goods are sold at cost: $3 million.l Cancelling case-lot

sale events: $900,000.The Senate committee,

chaired by Sen. John Mc-Cain (R-Ariz.), also takes a harder line than does the House on dampening pay and allowances as military leaders urged. McCain and colleagues for a third straight year would im-pose a cap on the January pay raise, allowing only 1.3 percent rather than 2.3 percent to match private-sector wage growth. Star-rank officers, for a second year, would see no Janu-

ary basic pay increase.The one-percent cap

would save $700 million next year with savings multiplying over time. The House voted to support a full pay raise.

The Senate commit-tee also endorses the Pentagon plan to trim adjustments in Basic Al-lowance for Housing until recipients are paying five percent of average local rental and utility costs out of pocket. The Senate voted for the same plan last year. House-Senate conferees instead held down last year BAH raises by a percentage point and said they would await recommendations on al-lowances from the military pay commission.

The commission’s Jan-uary report punted on the allowances issue, saying the department and Con-gress should determine what’s adequate to sup-port a volunteer force. So the Senate committee is back to embracing smaller BAH-rate hikes for several more years. The House bill does not.

Finally, the Senate bill fully embraces the commission’s recommen-dations for replacing the 20-year-or bust military retirement with a plan

that cuts annuities for the future force by 20 percent but also provides a 401(k)-like Thrift Savings Plan with government match-ing contributions.

McCain noted again that 83 percent of service members leave with no retirement benefits under the current plan because they don’t service the required 20 years. Under the new plan, mandated for future generations and offered as an option to the current force, 75 percent of members would leave service at least with TSP balances boosted by gov-ernment matching.

The Senate commit-tee does not enrich the commission plan, as the House does, by allowing government matching of TSP contributions beyond 20 years’ service. Also, the Senate plan, unlike the House, doesn’t reject as too risky the commission idea of offering members at retirement a lump sum in return for forfeiting an-nuities until age 67.

Tom Philpott is a syndicated columnist. You may write to him at Military Update, P.O. Box 231111, Centreville, VA 20120-1111; or at milupdate@aol.com.

The Senate Armed Services Committee has accepted a Defense De-partment plan to pare taxpayer support of base grocery stores, which if enacted into law would lower shopper savings at least two percentage points next year as well as cut store operating hours and other shopper services.

Defenders of the ben-efit for military families and the military resale industry fear the commit-tee’s action, if it becomes law, would be a significant first step toward devalu-ing, or even phasing out, discounted on-base shop-ping at stateside bases.

The Senate committee adds fuel to that fear with language in its version of

the 2016 National Defense Authoriza-tion Act (S. 1118) not only to lower funding for Defense Commis-sary Agen-

cy (DeCA) by 23 percent next fiscal year but di-recting studies on priva-tizing on-base grocery stores and ordering test-ing of privatization for at least five commissaries.

The House version of the bill would protect the benefit and ignores warn-ings from the Joint Chiefs of Staff that, in this era of smaller defense budgets, spending on stores must

be sacrificed to free up dollars for training and other critical readiness needs.

Difference between the bills will need to be ironed by House-Senate conferees, assuming the commissary initiatives survive Senate floor debate and final fund-ing decisions from the Senate appropriations committee.

Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) said he fought hard again privatization during committee markup of the bill and would continue to fight it with a floor amendment. There is much at stake here for exchange services too.

Unlike commissar-ies, exchanges generate profits through sales in

base department stores and specialty shops, then uses those “dividends” to fund on-base morale, welfare and recreational activities. But exchanges rely on deeper savings at commissaries to draw customers onto base. Ex-changes reportedly saw a 40 percent decline in sales when stateside com-missaries closed briefly during a partisan budget flap in Congress three years ago.

The Senate committee accepts in full the Obama administration’s call to cut $322 million from DeCA’s $1.4 billion budget beginning Oct. 1. DeCA Director Joseph Jeu, on orders from superiors, came up with this sav-ings plan months ago. He

explained in memo to the deputy defense secretary how the savings could be achieved.

A total of $183 million per year would be saved through operating effi-ciencies, Jeu wrote, and another $139 million if Congress enacts two leg-islative changes to make commissaries “more self-supporting.”

One would have DeCA stop paying “second des-tination transportation costs” needed to deliver fresh produce to commis-saries overseas. Instead, suppliers would have to bear those costs and presumably pass them on to shoppers as higher prices. DeCA estimates patrons would see overall savings drop from an av-

erage of 30 percent down to 28 percent.

The Senate bill also would allow DeCA to use some of the five-percent surcharge collected from patrons at checkout to buy operating supplies. Surcharge dollars now can only be to maintain and modernize current stores and to build new ones when necessary.

The Senate bill also embraces the notion that stores can be operated more efficiently. Though the Senate bill doesn’t endorse specific actions Jeu said he would have to take, his action plan is well understood. It includes:l Reducing store days

Senators accept plan to squeeze commissary benefit

See SeNaToRS Page 7

SeNaToRS FRoM Page 6

Tom Philpott

From staff reports

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Page 8 | THE RED 7 | Friday, May 29, 2015

ferently. They may draw their own conclusions about what it is that I did to cause this or why my dad doesn’t like me anymore … or I’ve disap-pointed him.”

Kids might develop their own anger issues and act out, Faran said. Again, they might experience depression and anxiety. Their grades might fall. But however confusing and disruptive it is for chil-dren, whose parents have a diagnosis, at least they have a name for it. Parents can explain it in age-appropri-ate ways. It is far, far worse for children whose parents have not gotten help and are, say, uncontrollably angry and drinking all the time.

Sometimes, Paxton said, she sees children, who startle or shake in fear simply at the sounds of their parents’ voic-es. No one wants that, so it is doubly important that these families get help - not just the Soldiers, the Families. Paxton, Faran and Johnson

encourage the Service mem-bers they see to bring their Families in for counseling as well, although Cozza does not believe this happens enough.

He said the benchmarks of successful PTSD treatment should not only be whether flashbacks and nightmares have decreased, “but we also probably want to ask them other questions related to the impact of treatment, like ‘How is the treatment helping you with your relationship with your kids? Are you being less reactive with them? Are you finding ways of being calmer with them? Are you finding ways of communicating with your spouse?’ All of those are also kind of important targets for treatment that may not be traditional, but … have the capacity to powerfully impact the Family.”

HELPING KIDSExperts agree that when

it comes to stressors, be it the mental health of parents,

deployments or a PCS move, kids tend to handle things as well as their parents do. “Par-ents, who are managing those transitions well, typically help their children do well,” Cozza said, “so recognizing that as a Family, ‘We can manage this,’ giving children their own jobs … and addressing those transitions can be re-ally helpful. … You want to try to help parents help their children recognize that their lives are predictable, so they want to be able to talk with them about if in fact there’s going to be a change, giving them an appropriate amount of time … to get ready.”

Even if parents try to fake it, acting like they are OK when they are really stressed or worried or overwhelmed, Paxton said, kids will pick up on it. “They’re like antennas. … Parents don’t have to say anything. They can pick up body language. They can pick up tone of voice. They can pick up eye gaze. … So even if

the mom has a stiff upper lip, and says ‘Everything’s great,’ she needs to come in (and get help) and say she’s crying in the shower at night. It’s OK to have other people say that it’s not unusual and to just talk about it. … I always tell parents … regardless of whether you feel damaged or hurt or broken … you are the most important thing in that child’s life.”

Routines and rituals are crucial when it comes to getting children through these challenges. During a deployment, for example, it is important to keep bed-time routines as close to the same as possible. After a move, maintain the same traditions for pizza night or Family game night. Get kids involved in the same sorts of after school activities. Start new rituals that encourage parent-child bonding. That last one is especially im-portant when parents have PTSD and might want to iso-

late themselves, Paxton said. And let children be children, Cozza said. Find time to let them hang out with friends or participate in extracurricular activities, even if the Family is reeling and in chaos.

THE FUTUREAs a whole, their future

is bright, and driven by their parents’ examples of selfless service, many Army kids are already doing impressive things in their communities. However, experts are a little concerned that no one forgets them now that more than a decade of combat is winding down. “I think military Fami-lies are very resilient,” John-son said. “One concern is just to continue monitoring these kids over time, because we don’t really know yet the im-pact of parental psychological issues related to the war and TBIs, for example. … I think there may be a mispercep-tion that now that the war is over, we don’t have to worry

about them so much. I think we still need to continue to be aware that the effects of that war will potentially continue for some time.”

Cozza agreed and said he thinks about the kids whose parents are getting out of the military and who will no longer have easy access to a supportive community, and, in some cases, health care or even jobs for their par-ents. “We really need to be thinking as a nation: What are the programs, whether it be in health care systems or community services, that are most likely to engage the Service members, veterans and their Families in order to provide them with the sup-port that they need?

“I’m most hopeful when I talk with these Families, who have had these incred-ible experiences and they still are moving on with their lives successfully. They find solu-tions for themselves. They seek out help and support.”

kIDS FRoM Page 2

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