No one ever told Ken Grosser about post-traumatic stress disorder

Jillian Danielson photo/Special to the News-Herald Ken Grosser served two tours in Iraq, as part of the initial invasion, and as a mechanic at a base in war-torn Baqubah. He has since been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

The long road home
Newest veterans struggle with after-effects of war

By John Rudolf
Friday, November 9, 2007 9:30 PM MST


Ken Grosser served two tours in Iraq, as part of the initial invasion, and as a mechanic at a base in war-torn Baqubah. He has since been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

A destroyed United States military M1 Abrams Main Battle Tank (MBT) sits along Route 1, in Iraq, during Operation Iraqi Freedom in April 2003

Department of Defense photo by Jennifer A. Krusen, United States Marine Corps

THE LONG ROAD HOME

Newest veterans struggle with after-effects of war

By JOHN RUDOLF

TODAY'S NEWS-HERALD

No one ever told Ken Grosser about post-traumatic stress disorder.

Not the recruiters who signed him up for the Army when he was just 18. Not the drill sergeants who trained him, or the officers who led him into battle for two tours in Iraq.

But he knows now.

"I'm still having flashbacks, still having nightmares, still hyper-sensitive to all my surroundings. I can't sleep right," he said. "I have to live with this for the rest of my life."

click post title for the rest

That is my only regret. "No one told Ken Grosser about PTSD" but no one told Tim Bowman, Jonathan Shultz or Joshua Omvig either. No one told the 148,000 Vietnam veterans who walked around for over thirty years not knowing what was wrong until a span of 18 months recently. No one told most of the troops or the veterans across the nation until it was too late for too many. The question is why no one bothered when every single study done has proven beyond a doubt early intervention works? Why wouldn't every single branch of the military be drilling it into their brains as much as they drill into their brains how to go to war? I don't know. I doubt I will ever know.

It can't be money. Surely they understand whatever money they put out now is just a tiny fraction of what they will have to payout for a lifetime of caring for the chronic veterans unable to ever work again. It saves them from having to pay to jail those self-medicating on illegal drugs and alcohol. It saves them money on having to take care of kids because of divorces with marriages falling apart that did not need to happen. It also saves them from having to pay for emergency rooms when they end up without health insurance yet also have to deal with the other health problems associated with PTSD, from the heart, overall health and attempted suicides.

So what reason would the government have of avoiding doing what works best and saves money? All the years I've been doing this, I never understood why they were not moving mountains to get these veterans into treatment. If they think caring for the wounded would cause a problem with recruiting, they have it backwards. It's not taking care of the wounded that has potential recruits thinking twice of joining. While they are willing to risk their lives, they are not willing to risk their futures and no one can blame them for that. If they die in combat, they have no more problems but if they survive wounds of body or mind they know this nation has a history of making them fight to have their wounds taken care of and to insure their families are provided for when they can no longer work. We have a history of not taking care of them and we all know it.

Check back tomorrow for a huge post on our homeless veterans if you doubt how little we really do for them. If I can reach a couple of hundred veterans a year across the globe, why can't they reach every veteran in this nation? They just started to try.

Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com
www.Namguardianangel.org
www.Namguardianangel.blogspot.com
www.Woundedtimes.blogspot.com
"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington