Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and the Legacy of Iraq

The Aspen Institute
Aspen, CO
Oct 4th, 2007

From the Front Lines: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and the Legacy of Iraq at the 2007 Aspen Health Forum with discussants Charles Figley, Georg-Andreas Pogany, Jennifer Vasterling and Barbara Rombergat.

The panelists will explore the health care consequences of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder related to the Iraq war for our families, communities and our society - The Aspen Institute

http://fora.tv/2007/10/04/Front_Lines_PTSD_and_the_Legacy_of_Iraq



Dr. Rombergat began Give An Hour so that psychologist could see veterans without charging them. She understood what damage was being done with the delay in treating the wounded. With the backlog of claims, she knew it meant time was being lost in treating these veterans from coast to coast.

Georg-Andreas Pognay, came into the media spotlight, next to Jessica Lynch. As Pognay pointed out, CNN had their photographs side by side with the headline Hero and the Coward. Pognay, dealing with the brain damage being done by the drug Lariam, sought help because he felt he could no longer do his duty. He spent 10 years in the military and was in Special Forces as a sniper. During training, he had to undergo psychological testing to make sure he had what it would take to use the training he received as a sniper, able to kill at a moments notice from great distances and making snap decisions.

After seeking help, seeing a psychologist, his commander sent him back home and he was to stand trial for being a coward. He was returned to Fort Carson during a time when they were not only dismissing PTSD as a non-illness, but were berating the veterans and attacking them with insults as well as false charges of having a pre-existing personality disorder. This would have carried the death penalty for him. He was then to stand trial in a Court Martial. The charges were later all dropped but they insisted he was one of the thousands of other veterans with “pre-existing personality disorder” instead of suffering from the side effects of Lariam and PTSD.

As we later discovered, Lynch was not a “hero” the way what happened was sold to the public but she was however a real hero by having the courage to tell the truth about what really happened that day. The military loves to twist things around to sell what they want the public to believe and they have done this throughout history. We also discovered that Pognay was no coward. He was brave all those years in service to this nation and always doing what was asked of him until Lariam affected his brain and the prolonged stress of combat claimed the rest.

Pognay was eventually given an honorable discharge and then began a non-profit group Just One Wounded Warrior. He’s been speaking out on PTSD and the wounds our warriors receive doing what this nation asks of them.

If you really want to understand the facts about PTSD and our veterans, go and watch the video. It's a little over an hour long and worth the time. kc