PTSD:Service in Bosnia took a toll

Service in Bosnia took a toll
Now, Fred Doucette helps others with stress disorder
PAUL GESSELL, Freelance; Ottawa Citizen Published

The first disturbing flashback came in the King of Donair restaurant on King St. in Fredericton. Capt. Fred Doucette was feeling tired and miserable, just as he had most every day since returning home July 7, 1996, from a year-long tour of duty as a UN peacekeeper in Bosnia. He closed his eyes for a moment. Suddenly, Doucette was no longer in the fast-food outlet, but back in time many months, in the doorway of a building in the UN Protected Area of Gorazde, "a small island of humanity" surrounded by the Bosnian-Serb Republic of Srpska.

"I can smell the wood smoke, the burning garbage and the sour, overpowering smell of urine and excrement," Doucette would write later of his hallucination on King St.

"My body contracts, my muscles tense in fear of being in a very dangerous place." Doucette was not aware he was experiencing a flashback. He truly believed, while in the grip of the hallucination, that he was back in war-ravaged Bosnia.

"There is the burnt-out tank, the pharmacy with its front covered by logs and a dirty Red Cross flag draped over them in an attempt to play on the humanity of the Serbs who have surrounded the town. I am afraid and terrified. What am I doing here?"

Suddenly, someone entered the King of Donair and banged the door. Doucette snapped out of the flashback. He staggered onto King St., dazed and confused about what had just happened to him.

"The only thing I know for certain is that I will tell no one," he thought at the time. "Only crazy people can travel into the past." Doucette did not know it then, but he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. He was not diagnosed and treated for this mental illness until 2001. The disorder was simply a taboo subject in many military circles. Today, Doucette is no longer in the Forces and no longer shy about discussing his illness. In fact, he has written a book about his experiences, Empty Casing: A Soldier's Memoir of Sarajevo Under Siege. Retired general Roméo Dallaire, Canada's most famous soldier with post-traumatic stress disorder, wrote the foreword. Doucette has become experienced discussing what used to be called "battle fatigue," "shell shock" or other, far more pejorative terms. Now, based at Lincoln, N.B., near CFB Gagetown, he has spent the past five years working with the government-funded Operational Stress Injury

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When I did the video, Wounded And Waiting, I used the same terms about what they go through during combat and what comes after with a flashback when it all comes back to life. If you want to know what it' like, go to the side bar in the video section and watch Wounded And Waiting.