IOS 5 rapid battery drain including in sleep mode springboard crashes FIX iPhone 4

OK folks, I resolved all issues in their entirety with the help of a genius bar tech who recognized that I was very technical.  WARNING!  Sync or backup your phone prior to performing these steps!

First, do a MANUAL download here of the IOS 5 that matches the model of phone you have and save that image to your desktop or some other place on your computer.  PUT THE PHONE IN DFU MODE, not recovery mode (google on how to accomplish if you are not familiar).  The raeson why you are going to put in DFU mode is so that you will be able to not only get a good copy of IOS 5 installed but to ensure that your firmware is not corrupt, which appeared to be the case with my battery drains and springboard crash issues.

One you are in DFU mode (your screen should be black the whole time, again google), open itunes and it will give you a warning that says that your phone needs to be restored.  If you are on a mac, hold down the option key and press RESTORE in iTunes.  This will open up a box that will allow you to "locate and select" a file, which will be the IOS 5 image that you manually downloaded before.

Once you do, the iphone will start to restore.  After all of the restore cycles have been completed, you will be prompted in iTunes to either setup as a new phone or restore from backup.  I USED RESTORE FROM BACKUP so that I could preserve all of my settings.  Everything has been working PERFECTLY ever since completing these steps!  I will probably go ahead and make a separate thread related to this fix.

I hope this helps!  Scott