When will military brass stop malingering on PTSD?

When I see videos done by the military interviewing commanders who get it, there is so much hope that this wound will finally be treated for what it is. Yet while the vast majority of the military leaders are educated, care about their soldiers and use intelligence, some report comes out about another uneducated, closed minded leader that find no shame in being out of the loop.

Army's battle: Mental illness
Military tries to balance caring for true PTSD patients, keeping eye out for malingering soldiers
By Aamer Madhani Tribune correspondent
2:30 AM CDT, June 23, 2008

BELLMORE, N.Y. — Kristofer Goldsmith was so distressed about the prospect of returning to Iraq that he decided he was willing to kill himself to avoid serving a second tour.

Just as Goldsmith's three-year Army contract was to expire, it was extended under the military's "stop loss" program, and his unit was set to deploy to Baghdad to take part in the troop surge. On the day before he was to ship out in May 2007, he took a dozen Percocet painkillers, washed down with more than a liter of vodka.

Soon after Goldsmith was admitted to Winn Army Community Hospital at Ft. Stewart, Ga., a senior non-commissioned officer from his brigade visited the young sergeant, along with an Army psychologist, to discuss discharging him from the military."We all agreed that it was for the best that my Army career come to an end then," said Goldsmith, 22, who added that he'd scrawled the words "stop loss killed me" in marker on his body before his suicide attempt. "It was a few days later when they told me that they were going to come at me for faking a mental lapse."

Malingering
The rear detachment commander of Goldsmith's unit, Maj. Douglas Wesner of the 2nd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, quickly initiated an administrative punishment known as an Article 15 against Goldsmith for malingering—that is, feigning a mental lapse or derangement or purposely injuring oneself—to avoid being deployed to Iraq.

Eventually his commanders dropped the Article 15, but not before removing Goldsmith from the service on a general discharge. Because he did not receive an honorable discharge, Goldsmith was stripped of his Montgomery GI Bill benefits, which he'd been counting on to help pay for college.

Goldsmith's tough treatment is not unheard of.

Twenty-one soldiers in Iraq have been punitively discharged since 2003 after being convicted of malingering, according to the Army.

Goldsmith remains adamant that he did not fake a mental illness. After Goldsmith's discharge, a psychologist with the Department of Veterans Affairs diagnosed him with post-traumatic stress disorder.

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Maj. Douglas Wesner apparently remains unable to understand what has been known since the time of King David in the Bible. While every organization in the military, serving the military and every veterans organization is stepping up, he remains sitting in the back of the room with his fingers in his ears. Over and over again we see leaders taking time to understand the men and women they command, yet others like Wesner cannot even understand their lack of knowledge is not a badge of honor but something to be ashamed of.

Ignorance is nothing to be proud of in the military or any walk of life. Malingering? What would he do if one of his soldiers had lost his legs and could not rise to do a proper salute? Just because he is unable to use his mind to understand this wound is a wound, why should he be allowed to make the wounded suffer under his command? The evidence is in. The facts are in. This wound has a long, long history but so have leaders like Wesner with the mentality that caused PTSD soldiers to be shot as cowards instead of treated with the dignity they deserved. Every leader needs to stop malingering when it comes to getting their act in gear and catching up to the rest of their counterparts who do get it! PTSD is nothing to be ashamed of but ignorance of what PTSD is a thing to be ashamed of. Had Goldsmith been in someone else's unit, he would have received better care and treatment because he deserved it. Too many have been forced out of the military when they were willling to stay in even after being wounded by PTSD. All they needed was the help to do it.

For Heaven's sake, we deal with PTSD in police departments across the country, fire departments across the country and all other walks of life. It's as if those who still want to treat PTSD like some "thing" of shame is insulting every other person in the country who has been wounded by trauma. Would Wesner have insulted Audie Murphy too? Maybe Wesner is a fine military man otherwise but until someone explains what PTSD is to him, he will never be all he can be and his troops will suffer for it. Time for some lessons to the others like Wesner. It's like leaving a commander still using a flint lock rifle while everyone else moved on to machine guns.