The Fates of Two U.S. Iraq Vets, Captors of Saddam

http://www.sanduskyregister.com/articles/2007/06/17/front/313912.txt

Vets' pain lingers long after war
By WAYNE BAKER | Sunday June 17 2007, 3:23am

Need for counseling grows; life after war ends in tragedy for two area veterans

Adam Kurczi and Phillip Cantu served their country proudly as members of the military.

They also became part of a growing list of young men who suffer from depression or commit suicide following their tours of duty.

Cantu, of Sandusky, was 24 when he killed himself last year. The army sergeant was also a national hero as his military unit helped capture Saddam Hussein in December 2003.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/16/AR2007061600866_pf.html

The War Inside

By Dana Priest and Anne Hull
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, June 17, 2007; A01

Army Spec. Jeans Cruz helped capture Saddam Hussein. When he came home to the Bronx, important people called him a war hero and promised to help him start a new life. The mayor of New York, officials of his parents' home town in Puerto Rico, the borough president and other local dignitaries honored him with plaques and silk parade sashes. They handed him their business cards and urged him to phone.

But a "black shadow" had followed Cruz home from Iraq, he confided to an Army counselor. He was hounded by recurring images of how war really was for him: not the triumphant scene of Hussein in handcuffs, but visions of dead Iraqi children.

In public, the former Army scout stood tall for the cameras and marched in the parades. In private, he slashed his forearms to provoke the pain and adrenaline of combat. He heard voices and smelled stale blood. Soon the offers of help evaporated and he found himself estranged and alone, struggling with financial collapse and a darkening depression.

At a low point, he went to the local Department of Veterans Affairs medical center for help. One VA psychologist diagnosed Cruz with post-traumatic stress disorder. His condition was labeled "severe and chronic." In a letter supporting his request for PTSD-related disability pay, the psychologist wrote that Cruz was "in need of major help" and that he had provided "more than enough evidence" to back up his PTSD claim. His combat experiences, the letter said, "have been well documented."

None of that seemed to matter when his case reached VA disability evaluators. They turned him down flat, ruling that he deserved no compensation because his psychological problems existed before he joined the Army. They also said that Cruz had not proved he was ever in combat. "The available evidence is insufficient to confirm that you actually engaged in combat," his rejection letter stated. Yet abundant evidence of his year in combat with the 4th Infantry Division covers his family's living-room wall.

they have done the dirty work for the Masters of War.