PTSD Should Count Towards Purple Heart Awards

Some Vets Want To Change Award Criteria
Some Say Psychological Illnesses Like Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Should Count Towards Purple Heart Awards
Comments 28
NEW YORK, June 14, 2008


CBS) When Army Captain Luis Montalvan was on his second tour of duty in Iraq, he was ambushed near a Syrian border crossing.

"As the attackers slashed me with their knives, I fired off several shots from my pistol and killed him," Montalvan recalled to CBS News correspondent Randall Pinkston. "I sustained blunt force trauma to my back. I was essentially paralyzed."

The physical injuries healed but two years later, after he left the army, Montalvan was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

"I'll hear something that reminds me of a gun shot or an explosion and I'll automatically reach for my M4," said Montalvan.

Of more than a million and a half U.S. military who've served in Iraq and Afghanistan, 300,000 have symptoms of PTSD, according to a Rand Corporation study.

For his service and his injuries, Montalvan has received more than 30 military commendations and medals, including a Purple Heart. But the Purple Heart is for his physical injuries - not PTSD.

Some veterans think that's unfair.

Former Marine Lieutenant Robert Muller, a Vietnam vet who was wounded in the the line of duty and has been bound to a wheel chair ever since, has a Purple Heart.

"Took a bullet through the chest and that qualified," said Muller.

As head of a veteran's advocacy group, Muller thinks PTSD victims should also be eligible for the Purple Heart, a medal traditionally only given for physical injuries, not psychological illnesses.

"We're not talking about an illness, we're talking about an injury," said Muller. "If you go to war and you have psychic trauma, that's injury."

Montalvan, now a graduate student at Columbia University, disagrees.

"There's a distinction between engaging the enemy and those who suffer psychologically from incidents that may in fact have nothing to do with contact with the enemy," said Montalvan.
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Main Entry: trau·ma
Function: nounPronunciation: 'trau-m&, 'tro -Inflected Form(s): plural traumas also trau·ma·ta
/-m&-t&/ Etymology: Greek traumat-, trauma wound, alteration of trOma; akin to Greek titrOskein to wound, tetrainein to pierce -- more at THROW 1 a : an injury (as a wound) to living tissue caused by an extrinsic agent b : a disordered psychic or behavioral state resulting from mental or emotional stress or physical injury 2 : an agent, force, or mechanism that causes trauma
http://reference.aol.com/dictionary?dword=trauma&lookupbtn=Look+Up

Cpt. Montalvan actually just supported the Purple Heart for PTSD without knowing it. When people get wounded by trauma it comes from an attack, either by nature or other humans.

Focusing on the events during combat, it involves people trying kill people. That is the nature of warfare. To kill and wound enough people until someone surrenders. It is violent. It is horrific. It is also an environment of living with the results of all that takes place. Sights, sounds, voices, smells penetrate the human exposed to all of it. To say that this wound does not come from an enemy is being dismissive of the enemy they were sent to fight. What is the nature of warfare? Answer that question and you know that when PTSD strikes the men and women sent to participate in it, it is a result of the enemy and the wound is caused by the enemy.