© 2006-2007-2008, Nadia McCaffrey, the Patrick McCaffrey Foundation &  the Veteran's Village, all rights reserved ©
Formed in 2006, the organization is a peace based organization for
members of the military who have served in the war, we are focusing on the Iraq & Afghanistan conflicts, however, this foundation is to help all war veterans .
We believe the best way to support our troops is to bring them home now and take care of them when they get here.
Newspapers Articles etc...
A Memorial for Disabled Veterans
Original Air Date: May 21, 2007

There are more than 3 million disabled American veterans living today, and more are added to the list
every year as the war in Iraq continues. Dr. Oz talks with philanthropist Lois Pope about treating wounded
soldiers on the front lines and honoring them once they return home with a life-altering injury.

For the past decade, Lois says she has been working toward an important goal­to one day have a national
memorial for wounded veterans in Washington, D.C. "It is the only group of historically important heroes that
have never been honored throughout American history," Lois says. "This memorial will be a tribute to their
courage, to their sacrifice."

Dr. Oz says as medical practices on the front lines of war improve, there will be more wounded veterans
returning from war. "I think the magnitude of the trauma nowadays is much greater and the ability to save these
folks is much greater," Dr. Oz says. While more veterans are being saved, he says their injuries will likely change
them for life. "If you are wounded so badly that you would have died because both of your legs have been blown
off­and now you are saved­it is a life that is very different for you."

Lois says a memorial to honor living, injured soldiers is now taking shape, after a decade of raising awareness
and funds. The American Veterans Disabled for Life Memorial won't likely be completed until 2010, but she says
disabled veterans all around the country are already feeling pride in being associated with a national memorial.
"They really feel it would be a place where people of our nation could go and say thank you for a job well done,"
Lois says. "They don't want any more than that­that is all they want."


http://www2.oprah.com/xm/moz/200705/moz_20070521.jhtml


Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Original Air Date: January 15, 2007
Using alternative, mind-body medicine to treat war veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
is becoming a practiced healing method around the world. Here in the United States, Dr. James Gordon is one of
the leading mind-body medicine experts. Dr. Oz talks to Dr. Gordon about treating PTSD and using practices
outside the realm of conventional medicine to treat all illnesses.

Causes: PTSD is common among people who have been in war or people who have experienced catastrophes
such as Hurricane Katrina. However, Dr. Gordon explains that events such as being abused as a child or losing
a loved one in a violent way, without much emotional support afterward, can also cause PTSD.

Symptoms: There are several symptoms of PTSD that Dr. Gordon says can occur after experiencing
overwhelming stress that makes coping difficult. These symptoms include: agitation, anxiety, difficulty
concentrating, trouble sleeping, emotional numbness, flashbacks or nightmares of the traumatic event you
experienced, and avoiding reminders of the event.

Healing: Biologically, Dr. Gordon says people with PTSD have a continual output of stress hormones in their
brain. Those hormones can kill off brain cells related to memory and emotion. According to Dr. Gordon, because
brain functions are affected by PTSD, sufferers often cannot verbally express memories or flashbacks of the
traumatic event to others. Through mind-body medicine, Dr. Gordon teaches people with PTSD how to relax and
helps them discover a "safe place" where they can quiet their nervous system. Through techniques that include
relaxation and using imagination and physical movements, Dr. Gordon helps sufferers develop tools they can
use to deal with the disorder on a daily basis. "This is not a one-day-a-week thing," Dr. Gordon says. "The
symptoms of PTSD may come at any time and people need to know how to deal with it themselves on a daily
basis."

Taking an integrated approach that uses both conventional and mind-body medicine when treating illnesses is
something Dr. Gordon says should be a part of medical training in the United States. From comprehensive
cancer care to stress management and PTSD, Dr. Gordon recommends doctors and patients explore all options
during medical treatment
Tracy Press
Wednesday, 06 June 2007
Newsman Dan Rather will be in Tracy today talking to the mother of a soldier
killed in Iraq for a piece on recovering veterans.

By Jennifer Wadsworth
Photo - Veteran rights activist Nadia McCaffrey, shown with a close friend of her son, Sgt Patrick
McCaffrey who died three years ago, Stephen Edwards, Iraq Veteran, will be interviewed by Dan
Rather as part of his series of interviews with veterans and their families.

For the next week, veteran rights activist Nadia McCaffrey’s Tracy home will serve as a backdrop for reporter
Dan Rather’s series of interviews with veterans, their families, farmers and McCaffrey herself.

The interviews will be for an upcoming “Dan Rather Reports” show called “A Mother’s Story,” focused on
McCaffrey, whose son Sgt. Patrick McCaffrey died in Iraq three years ago, and her vision to create agrarian
havens for veterans to peacefully recover from the stress of combat.

Rather will interview several Tracy locals besides McCaffrey, including John Treantos, the president of the
Tracy War Memorial.

McCaffrey said she could think of no one better than Rather to investigate the plight of veterans in what she
describes as an age of perpetual warfare, where there’s a constant influx of young, traumatized veterans.

One in six Iraq veterans suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, according to a study by the New England
Journal of Medicine. The same study reported that less than 40 percent sought professional help under the
assumption that it would compromise their military careers.

McCaffrey’s goal is to give veterans like these a place to live and stay active until they readjust to civilian life.

“One thing that many people don’t know is that Dan Rather was a Marine,” she said. “That’s why this topic is
very dear to him, and very close to his heart.”

The interviews will center on an informal coalition of professionals and farmers, dubbed Swords to
Plowshares, looking for ways to pool their resources to help veterans.

“This effort is politically neutral,” emphasized McCaffrey. “I don’t want people to mix up the political part of the
issue with this.”

Farms Not Arms, one of the nonpartisan farm groups joining the cause, offers paid jobs and sometimes room
and board to U.S. soldiers returning from Iraq.

“It gives them a chance to get back on their feet,” McCaffrey said. “The big news there is that the farmers are
opening up their farms to help out the veterans. And not just here — there are farms in Mexico and across
the country participating in this.”

Since the inception of Swords to Plowshares, people from all professions have found ways to contribute.
Doctors offer medical assistance, homeowners provide shelter and various businesses give paid job training.

Rather will interview several sources in McCaffrey’s home, and the show will follow them to the coalition’s
international meeting at the Santa Cruz Veteran’s Memorial Building this Sunday.
THU JUN 21, 2007, NPR, etc...
The Traumatic Stress of Combat
Listen
Iraq and PTSD (12:01P) Pentagon policy calls for equal time on and off duty, but troops in Iraq spend 15 months in
combat with just 12 months on leave. If President Bush decides to maintain the current build-up, tours may be
extended.  A military report says the constant threat of death and exposure to atrocities leads to depression, anxiety
and post-traumatic stress syndrome. Mental health issues may be more severe than they were during Vietnam or
World War II. Senior commanders, veterans and their doctors agree that civilians don't understand the mental health
consequences of combat and its aftermath.  We hear about flashbacks, panic attacks, fearful wives and frightened
children.  Are Marines and soldiers getting the help they need when they have to return to combat or when they finally
come home to adjust to civilian life?;
http://www.kcrw.com/news/programs/tp;
Trading Arms for Farms

A new movement is finding work for returning Iraq veterans on small-scale farms
across the country. The results have been positive for vets -- and for struggling
rural communities.  

Megan Tady
December 4, 2007

Finally home from combat in Iraq, Steve Edwards felt detached from his friends and family.
Edwards had witnessed the highly publicized death of his friend, California National Guardsman Patrick
McCaffrey, in June 2004. Edwards was the first to tell Patrick's mother what the military would not: Patrick was
shot by the Iraqi soldier he was training. The Pentagon eventually acknowledged these claims in 2006.

Edwards himself was also injured by a roadside bomb that left him with a limp.

"I was happy to be home; I was happy to be with my wife and daughter again," Edwards said. "But even with
family, I just didn't feel like I belonged anymore. At least, I didn't feel like I belonged around people like my wife
and daughter, who were just innocent."

Suffering from acute post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), Edwards withdrew. One particularly dark night, he
called Patrick's mother, Nadia McCaffrey, who had been counseling many veterans who had served with her son.
Edwards had locked himself in a room, and wouldn't come out, he told Nadia, until he understood what was
happening to him.

The next day, Nadia arranged for Edwards to get help -- not through treatment at a Veterans Affairs (VA)
hospital, but at a monastery in Oregon. Edwards' plight solidified what Nadia had already been thinking:
Struggling war veterans need to get back to the land to find peace.

In 2007, Nadia created the Veterans’ Village, an organization seeking farmland where veterans can work and
rehabilitate. Construction is nearly finished on a farm in Sonoma County, California, and additional "villages" are
planned for upstate New York and North Carolina.

"The only thing that helped him was to get him to a different state of mind," she said. "I hear it over and over [from
vets] that they just want to be out in nature. Why? Because its freedom. It's not a challenge. And it's really
satisfying for them when they plant something and watch it grow. It's not for everybody. But many of the veterans
will find peace this way."

An Unfamiliar Life

Earlier this month, CBS reported that over 120 veterans committed suicide each week in 2005. Around the same
time, a U.S. Army survey found that 25 percent of active-duty soldiers and 50 percent of reservists were receiving
or needed mental health services after combat. Almost a quarter of America's homeless population are war
veterans.

"Our veterans are coming home, but they're not being taken care of the way they should," Nadia said. Spit out by
the war machine, veterans often encounter red tape and hoops at the VA.

"Most vets, when they come back, especially the younger vets, they don't realize the benefits they have because
the military doesn't tell them," Edwards said. "And the VA doesn't exactly say, 'Hey, come on back to the VA, we'll
help you out.' They don't advertise. You don't know where to get help. You're lost."

Along with being rebuffed by the VA, Edwards said it was difficult when his family tried to understand what he had
been through in Iraq.

"You already feel awkward enough about what you've gone through," Edwards said. "But [your family is] sitting
there trying to understand you instead of accepting you; it makes you feel even more detached."

Day-to-day tasks became difficult for Edwards. Being in a crowd of people was especially trying. "There were a lot
of crowds [in Iraq], a lot of confusion and activity going on," Edwards said. "When I get out in crowds and around
a lot of people, I become very anxious and that army training, that hyper-vigilance of wanting to pay attention to
everything and everybody and look for escape routes, that kicks in."

Nadia, who has perhaps stepped in to help mentor veterans the way she would have comforted her own son,
says soldiers like Edwards are just not easily able to reintegrate into society.

"The life that was so familiar to them in the past has become something completely foreign to them," Nadia said.
"They don't fit anymore. They don't function as the father, the husband, or the son that they were."

When Nadia first began envisioning the Veterans’ Village, she asked Edwards to join her. He agreed, and is now
a board member of the organization.

Edwards is hopeful that a farming environment will be healing for veterans. "It's peaceful and tranquil," he said.
"You're getting back to nature. You're getting back to the earth. Just the serenity of being on a farm will really
help a great number of vets struggling with PTSD or finding their place in society again."

Veterans Make New Farmers

Nadia and Edwards aren't alone in their back-to-the-land philosophy. They're joined by dozens of other
organizations and small farms across the country looking to place struggling vets in agricultural communities.

Along with assisting Nadia with acquiring the land for the first Veterans’ Village in California, the organization
Farms Not Arms is helping veterans connect with seasonal jobs and internships on farms across the nation. The
organization is supported by the Family Farm Defenders, Global Exchange, and a long list of farms and
businesses.

Farms are "a place to give [vets] work and vocational training and just a healthy living environment," said Michael
O'Gorman, one of the founders of Farms Not Arms.

Another coalition, the Farmer-Veteran Coalition, is bridging the relationship between farmers and vets. And the
organization Veteran Homestead has built "Victory Farm," a supportive housing program for veterans located on
an 80-acre working organic vegetable farm in New Hampshire.

O'Gorman says the agriculture push is not one-sided. Just as veterans have been affected by the wars in Iraq
and Afghanistan, so too have rural and farming communities in the United States. According to a 2007 Carsey
Institute study, young adults from rural areas enlist in the military at disproportionately higher rates than other
areas because of lack of other opportunities. The study concluded that the death rate for rural soldiers was 48
percent higher than the rate for soldiers from the city or suburbs.

"We're in such dire need of new farmers that maybe by bringing the veterans onto the farms as a place to heal,
we can also hopefully find some new young blood to go into agriculture," O'Gorman said. "It's kind of a mutual self-
help thing."

Since its inception, Farms Not Arms has been highlighting the affects of U.S. militarism on rural communities. He
said farmers are "being written off, or sacrificed for this war." Their anti-war message is rooted in opposing the
"enormous waste of resources" for war that threatens farm work, according to the Web site.

"We're really on the front lines of this war because of the heavy tolls it's taking on the rural communities,"
O'Gorman said. "And we're on the front line of global warming because we deal with it in our vocation. We're
dealing with the loss of farmers and farm land. So we're really seeing all of these issues tied together as upside-
down priorities of our country."

O'Gorman, who has been farming for 37 years, says the biggest farming crisis is the lack of new, young farmers.
"With free trade agreements, people just think we can get the food from somewhere else," he said. "I don't think
that's healthy for our national security, or for the quality of our life or our food. We're going to wake up one day
and regret that we didn't train a new generation of people how to feed ourselves."

For Edwards, he's just hoping a little farm work will go a long way in helping veterans. "I don't care what war, what
era. I just want better help and better care for any and all veterans."
DAN RATHER REPORTS
"HEROS AT HOME"
A Mother Story, A Wife Story
Radio Link
There are two parts. The first is about a Nat. Guard Unit, the second part (the better of the two in my
biased opinion) is about an infantry platoon commander in Falluja.