Vietnam Vet Still Recovering Four Decades Later

One more case of a veteran with PTSD being treated for what he did not have and not treated for what he did have. One more case of ending up in jail instead of treatment. One more case of a lot of wasted years suffering. Are we paying attention yet?

Vietname Vet Still Recovering Four Decades Later
By Cheryl Bentley The Suncoast News

Published: August 23, 2008

The fall into a rice paddy from an Army helicopter left Eugene Hairston's body intact, but 40 years later, his spirit is still recovering.

Hairston's story, as told to Dunedin resident Susan Adger, has been recounted in "A Quiet Voice," published by iUniverse, an online service for self-publishers. The two will have a book signing from 1 to 3 p.m. today, Aug. 23, at Oak Trail Books, in downtown Palm Harbor.

Sitting in a Dunedin cafe with Adger, the deep-voiced Hairston emits an aura of strength and serenity that belies the trauma that has dogged him throughout his life.

He has suffered from alcohol and drug abuse and post traumatic stress disorder, a condition of severe anxiety caused by emotional reaction to past traumatic events.

In Hairston's case, PTSD developed in 1968 in Vietnam after he tumbled 120 feet from a helicopter that had deliberately been tilted to make him fall. Terrified, Hairston hid in the jungle several days before an Army unit accidentally discovered him.

But he was not diagnosed with PTSD until 1998 after almost three decades of being in and out of prisons for armed robbery, larceny and drug dealing and stints of living on the streets. He had previously been treated several times at veterans' hospitals for drug and alcohol addiction but never before for PTSD. Once medical personnel learned of his addiction, they did not probe deeper for the cause of his problems because they assumed they were the result of his addiction, he noted.

But the PTSD treatment seemed to touch deeper causes the previous therapy had not. Coupled with support from the Department of Veterans Affairs, Hairston said, it enabled him to turn his life around. "It was the same government I had hated for years that saved my life," he acknowledged.
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