Post-Combat Coping Methods Vary, Troops Say

Post-Combat Coping Methods Vary, Troops Say
By AmericasNewsTodayCom


By AmericasNewsToday.Org staff




Methods of coping with combat and its after effects vary as greatly as the effects themselves, six warriors participating in a conference panel in Washington said.

The Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury hosted the "Warrior Resilience Conference: Partnership with the Line." Combat veterans who spoke at the conference described a range of effects and needs in becoming resilient.

Army Maj. Stephen Williams was the head nurse with an outpatient unit of the 3rd Medical Command’s 28th Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad when the base was hit with mortars July 10.

Since then, Williams has dwelled not on what he saw or did that day, but on what he couldn’t do -- save his battle partner, Army Capt. Maria Ortiz.

"I couldn’t provide assistance to my comrade who was actually lying next to me and ended up passing away," said Williams, who was seriously wounded in his leg with a severed femoral artery.

Dealing with the reality that he couldn’t help Ortiz was just one piece of a larger puzzle for Williams. He also had to face how his injuries would affect him and his family. When he returned home to convalesce, he said, his young children wouldn’t touch him, for fear they would hurt him.

"In hindsight, I didn’t know enough to say, ‘Hey, we need to talk to them more [deeply] on this," he said. "So, I think there’s something more that we could do for the families out there [to] let them come to grips with these situations."

An Army couple at the conference, the Blackledges, also know how crucial it is to have family support during the healing process and just how important it is to come to grips with what’s happened.
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