Stars & Stripes LTTE: PTSD letter should be shared

I recently posted a letter published in Stripes, The ‘hilarity’ of PTSD, very well written, by a Spc. in Camp Liberty, Iraq, in rebuttal to a SGT, also in Iraq, who thought PTSD was "a joke." The Spc's letter earned a spot on DU's "Greatest Posts" listing a couple of days ago:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5102337&mesg_id=5102337


A letter in response to the Spc's will be published in tomorrow's Stars & Stripes:

PTSD letter should be shared

The U.S. Army specialist who wrote "The ‘hilarity’ of PTSD" (letter, Feb. 19) is to be saluted. He penned very poignant and painfully truthful prose — putting a personal face on this tragic mental illness. It’s a sobering reminder that if you really want a true picture of the pulse of the military — listen to the younger troops.

He exemplifies a true warrior and as a junior soldier embodies the traits lacking in many of our most senior military leaders. His spot-on characterization of the misconceptions of this neglected (and vastly misunderstood) mental disease should be taken dead serious. It’s unfortunate that the military still does not seem to think that post-traumatic stress disorder is real.

His letter should be sent to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen, Acting Surgeon General Rear Adm. Steven Galson and Sgt. Maj. of the Army Kenneth Preston — and more importantly should become mandatory reading material at all senior leadership courses throughout the military.

Until the military embraces this disease, another generation of young men and women is going to face permanent debilitating mental scarring. PTSD today will ultimately affect more people than Agent Orange and PTSD from the Vietnam War did in the late 1960s and ’70s.

It’s time for the senior leadership of our armed forces to step up to the plate and demand more money to treat this disease and also demand a comprehensive, across-the-board education program. Anything less is a gross failure of their combined command responsibilities and they should be relieved of their commands.

http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=125&article=60920


Also, there was a letter in today's Stripes re: Allowing Gays to Serve Openly (in the military), timely considering last night's Oscar commentary on the subject of gay/lesbian acceptance on the federal level.

http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=125&article=60910

Because the discussion of gays serving openly in the U.S. military has been a constant source of political contention in Stars and Stripes, I think the debate bears a look at those countries whose policies are essentially the same as the U.S.’

The countries banning homosexuals from serving in the military are: Brazil, China, Cuba, Egypt, Greece, Iran, Mexico, North Korea, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Syria, Turkey, Venezuela and Yemen.

I look forward to the day when the U.S. joins the 21st-century ranks of all the other countries, to include all of NATO (except for the U.S. and Turkey), that consider sexual preference a matter of personal identity rather than a litmus test of one’s "family values," as judged, however harshly and arbitrarily, by any of the above nations, including our own.

Someone in the Clinton administration once said it was the military that had frequently been at the forefront of major social changes in our country, often against its own will. Considering how gays and lesbians now live openly in the private and public sectors as politicians, doctors, lawyers, engineers, scientists, athletes, entertainers, butchers, bakers and candlestick makers, the discussion of whether they should serve openly in the military is anachronistic.

We need to modernize our military.

There's a condition in combat. Most people know about it. It's when a fighting person's nervous system has been stressed to it's absolute peak and maximum. Can't take anymore input. The nervous system has either (click) snapped or is about to snap. In the first world war, that condition was called shell shock. Simple, honest, direct language. Two syllables, shell shock. Almost sounds like the guns themselves. That was seventy years ago. Then a whole generation went by and the second world war came along and very same combat condition was called battle fatigue. Four syllables now. Takes a little longer to say. Doesn't seem to hurt as much. Fatigue is a nicer word than shock. Shell shock! Battle fatigue. Then we had the war in Korea, 1950. Madison avenue was riding high by that time, and the very same combat condition was called operational exhaustion. Hey, were up to eight syllables now! And the humanity has been squeezed completely out of the phrase. It's totally sterile now. Operational exhaustion. Sounds like something that might happen to your car. Then of course, came the war in Viet Nam, which has only been over for about sixteen or seventeen years, and thanks to the lies and deceits surrounding that war, I guess it's no surprise that the very same condition was called post-traumatic stress disorder. Still eight syllables, but we've added a hyphen! And the pain is completely buried under jargon. Post-traumatic stress disorder. I'll bet you if we'd of still been calling it shell shock, some of those Viet Nam veterans might have gotten the attention they needed at the time. I'll betcha. I'll betcha.