Veteran wants others to understand PTSD

04/20/08
Marine recounts war within

Veteran wants to help others understand stress disorder


Editor's note: This story contains graphic war details, as recounted by a local Vietnam veteran. Reader discretion is advised.

Charles Shaughnessy continued to thrust his knife into the North Vietnamese soldier.

Tears poured down the young Marine's face, splashing in a pool of red dirt. Yet his arm could not stop swinging.

For days, the 20-year-old watched as other squads tried to take Hill 100, only to be massacred by an entrenched Vietnamese enemy.

He was ordered to lead the assault one week later. It was still dark when the attack began.

Shaughnessy took control when he saw one of them pop up to shoot the advancing Marines.

He grabbed the man by the neck and squeezed. His knife was relentless.

Shaughnessy's body vibrated with fear, as he continued up the hill, screaming and stabbing.

The fear gave way to animalistic rage.

"I cut off the heads of my enemy and displayed them at the top of the hill," he wrote years later. "I felt nothing."

But the grisly images consumed him afterward.

Shaughnessy, who now resides in Gulf Cove, would awake many nights seeing the enemy he killed.

Following the war, Shaughnessy hitchhiked across the country in search of inner peace. He spent four years living in the woods of upstate New York, away from people and society -- both of which he no longer trusted.

Shaughnessy joined the Marines in 1966 eager to serve his country and end the war so others would not have to fight. He was sent to Vietnam two years later, as part of a special operations detachment.

His outfit was a roving battalion of hunter/killer teams designed to operate behind enemy lines. Most of their missions remain classified.

"I did live through a hell of a lot, but it doesn't define who I am today," said Shaughnessy, who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.

But he will never forget.
http://www.sun-herald.com/Newsstory.cfm?pubdate=042008&story=tp4np3.htm&folder=NewsArchive2