Veterans Day, PTSD and FREE Military Spouse Novels

On Veterans Day I am profoundly grateful that my husband does not suffer from PTSD gotten from serving on active duty with the U.S. Army. It is partly out of this gratitude that I try online to spread information about PTSD to help others.

In a recent blog post on this blog I wrote an update about PTSD after taking part in a Department of Defense's Bloggers' Roundtable (of which I am a member). The post included information about Operation Proper Exit that I learned about from the USA Network's popular TV show COVERT AFFAIRS (full disclosure: I'm a fan of this show). Click here to read this blog post.

IF YOU WATCH TELEVISION — Tuesday night, November 13th, will have two fictional shows dealing with PTSD:

Christopher Gorham's COVERT AFFAIRS character Auggie Anderson will return to Iraq as part of Operation Proper Exit. According to the Nov. 12-18 TV Guide, NCIS will start a two-parter — “Shell Shock”: “[A] veteran suffering from PTSD holds the key to a murder case.”

I personally believe in the power of fictional stories to get across important information. This is why I am hoping to move forward with my proposed PTSD-related TV series www.SolomonsJustice.com

AND FOR VETERANS DAY — myself and two other military spouse authors are offering our novels for FREE on Kindle on Sunday, November 11th. You can get the links to the books on Kindle in this article about us in the SpouseCalls column on Stars and Stripes.

(Don't have a Kindle? No problem. You can get a FREE Kindle app for your iPhone, iPad, Android, PC or Mac at http://amzn.to/NBoSGU)

Besides this SpouseCalls article, our Veterans Day project has been getting other good online coverage:

“Honoring Those Who Serve” at Digital Book Today

“The Best of the Sunday Free Kindle eBooks” also at Digital Book Today

“Military wives mark Veterans Day with free gift of their novels” at MilitarySuccessNetwork.com

““Sharing Our Military Wife Experiences” at MilitaryWivesCentral.com

“Army Wife” at the Army Times

“Phyllis Zimbler Miller” at Deleyna's Drift

“A Triad of Writers” at Deleyna's Drift

“Veterans Day Special: Award-winning Military Fiction” at Kindle Book Promos

“Mrs. Lieutenant: Free Kindle Book” at Freebooksy.com

© 2012 Miller Mosaic LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller is a former military spouse as well as the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks, including the military fiction MRS. LIEUTENANT: A Sharon Gold Novel.

Click here to visit her Amazon author page at amazon.com/author/phylliszimblermiller

She also has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the online marketing company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com

Update on PTSD Help for Veterans

As a member of the Department of Defense's Bloggers' Roundtable, I participated in a presentation in honor of Veterans Day featuring three speakers, including retired U.S. Army Major Ed Pulido, whose story is told in the above six-minute video.

The good news is that the VA and numerous other organizations are making available more and more resources for veterans suffering from PTSD and their families.

The bad news is that getting the information to those in need of it still lags.

One concern brought up by another blogger is that veterans, when they realize there might be something wrong, are unsure where to start the process of getting help for possible PTSD.

One such place is RealWarriors.net -- which lists this information on the website's home page:

DCoE Outreach Center
For Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury Information and Resources

866-966-1020

Military Crisis Line
For Crisis Intervention for Service Members, Veterans and Families

1-800-273-8255, Press "1"

When I asked about services for veterans who need help with possible PTSD, I was told about a new VA program called "Coaching Into Care."

Here is a statement from the program:

Coaching Into Care provides a “coaching” service for family and friends of Veterans who see that their Veteran needs help. Coaching involves helping the caller figure out how to motivate their Veteran to seek services. The service is free and provided by licensed clinical social workers and psychologists. The goal of the service is to help the Veteran and family members find the appropriate services in their community.

Click here for more information on the "Coaching Into Care" program.

And finally, because of a mention two episodes in a row on the USA Network's show COVERT AFFAIRS, I learned about Operation Proper Exit, which takes wounded veterans back to Iraq in order to help the healing process.

Here is the followup interview of a soldier suffering from PTSD who went back to Iraq on Operation Proper Exit.

And here is the longer video, a segment of CBS's 60 MINUTES, on an Operation Proper Exit trip to Iraq.

P.S. I just published on Kindle a cozy mystery, CAST THE FIRST STONE. I was able to weave into the story a subplot about PTSD in the hope that people suffering from PTSD not brought on by combat would be encouraged to seek help.
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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of the novel MRS. LIEUTENANT and the co-author of the eBook technothriller LT. COMMANDER MOLLIE SANDERS. Phyllis is the co-founder of the marketing consulting company Miller Mosaic LLC, which works with clients to attract more business. Read her posts at the company's social media marketing blog.

USA Network Show COVERT AFFAIRS Supports Disabled Veterans

In "Half a World Away" (episode 7, season 2) of the USA Network show COVERT AFFAIRS, former Special Forces soldier Auggie (Christopher Gorham) tracks the man whose betrayal blinded Auggie and killed his Special Forces teammates.

Partway through the show the actor does a PSA about supporting disabled veterans and then asks viewers to go to CharactersUnite.com to learn more.

On the site are these statistics:

More than 600 military men and women have returned from the Iraq war as amputees

Approximately 1 in 5 veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan have depression or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder afflicts an estimated 11 percent of veterans of the war in Afghanistan and 20 percent of Iraqi war veterans

Visit the site to watch two brief videos by Christopher Gorham, learn where to get help if you're a veteran, and learn how you can "take action to serve America's military families."

Learn more now.
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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of the novel MRS. LIEUTENANT and her social media marketing company Miller Mosaic Power Marketing works with clients to use social media to attract more business. Read her social media marketing blog.

Piper Perabo in New TV Series COVERT AFFAIRS Plays a Realistic CIA Field Agent

In the new drama series “Covert Affairs” on USA Network, Piper Perabo stars as Annie Walker, a 28-year-old CIA trainee yanked from her training at “The Farm” for a critical mission in D.C. and then kept at CIA headquarters rather than finishing her training.

What makes this spy thriller believable (as a TV drama) starting with the first episode is the scene in which Annie is hauled in to speak with a trainer and she believes she is about to be cut from training.

She blabbers that she’ll take retake the exercise. She asks if it was the driving course or the deception training.

The reply is that she was better on the driving course than any woman they’ve ever had and better on the deception training than anyone in a decade.

Then she is told she is being yanked from training to immediately report to Langley – CIA headquarters.

And, yes, she does silly newcomer things and is then introduced to her new secret world by Auggie Anderson (played by Christopher Gorham), a Langley analyst blinded on a special ops mission. (His computer has a Braille keyboard.)

What I like best about this new series is that it is relatively realistic. Perabo is not Angelina Jolie in the new movie “Salt,” a CIA operative who functions more like Spider Man than a real CIA field operative.

Perabo’s Annie Walker is an active field agent but she doesn’t do any superhuman feats.

What’s more, during her polygraph exam in the first episode it is established that she speaks six languages. (Thanks to having traveled around the world in search of herself.) And this language ability is integrally woven into the episodes.

Although “Covert Affairs” takes the usual TV dramatic license with the realities of jurisdiction between the CIA, the FBI and local police, it does provide an interesting insider’s look into CIA covert operations.

I highly recommend this show for its entertaining plots and for its realistic portrayal of a female action heroine. And the show rightly takes its place alongside a sister show on USA Network that I also highly recommend – “Burn Notice” – in which a female operative is also realistically portrayed.

Learn more at www.usanetwork.com/series/covertaffairs/
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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of the novel MRS. LIEUTENANT and her social media marketing company Miller Mosaic Power Marketing works with clients to use social media to attract more business. Read her social media marketing blog.