GUARD POLICY KEEPS MEMBERS SEPARATED AFTER DUTY

GUARD POLICY KEEPS MEMBERS SEPARATED AFTER DUTY
Iraq vets help each other
Notes on message board support Ahoskie man suffering from PTSD
BARBARA BARRETT
(Raleigh) News & Observer
The letter landed in Army Sgt. 1st Class Chad Stephens' mailbox in the Williamston armory last week. It ran three pages. It was from a Marine who had served in Beirut.

The Marine described his nightmares and experiences and referred to Stephens' 11-year-old son.

"He said I need to make sure that little guy grows up," Stephens said. "I thought it was a good letter. He gave me good advice."

The News & Observer ran a series called The Promise two weeks ago that detailed Stephens' struggles since an N.C. National Guard battle in Baqouba, Iraq, in June 2004. One of Stephens' gunners, Spc. Daniel Desens Jr., was killed in the fight. Stephens, a platoon sergeant, was awarded a Silver Star after trying to save Desens.

Several of Stephens' soldiers left messages on the News & Observer's Web site, share.triangle.com, last week discussing their own problems.

"I was there with Chad in Baqubah Iraq and I do suffer from PTSD," wrote one sergeant. "It is real and I too call on Chad from time to time for help."
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One of the biggest problems with this practice is that while half of the National Guardsmen have been diagnosed with PTSD, they are not getting the help or the support they all need.

As much as I know about PTSD, what causes it and what they go through with it, I was not there. Although I have seen more pictures of what they see than the average person, I did not see it all in real life. Although I have nightmares and have trouble sleeping because of Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam, I have never felt my life on the line, lost a comrade or experienced anything they go through. They need support from others who have. They need to know that what they are dealing with after, is not out of the ordinary for these men and women who are anything but ordinary.

There is nothing ordinary about combat and there is nothing ordinary about them. They are rare to us. This practice of leaving them to just go back to their families, their jobs and the lives they had as "weekend warriors" is damaging them in a time when they can be helped instead. The sooner they begin treatment to heal, the better the result. This cannot be stressed enough. What kind of help are they getting in a system with a claims backlog of 600,000, months of waiting and endless paperwork? As bad as we think the numbers of PTSD are, we cannot ignore the fact there are many trapped in that 600,000 figure, not counted, and even more still to come.