1,811,000 Have Served In Iraq and Afghanistan

Keith Armstrong, Director of Family Therapy Clinic, San Francisco VA, gave that figure just now in a presentation on Treating Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in Military Families.

1,811,000 men and women going into combat and coming back to their families and communities. 662,221 have had more than one tour of duty.

Think about that. With the rate of PTSD in humans calculated at 1 out of 3 exposed to traumatic events, we're already looking at 600,000. If you use the rate of 1 out of 5, which others use, it's still 362,000. Wait, if you think that's bad add in this. 662,221 have a 50% higher risk of developing PTSD with each new redeployment. Some have gone back 5 times.

When you look at the National Guards and the Reservists, their rate of PTSD has been presenting at 50%. Where do they go when the communities are not stepping up? When clergy are not stepping up so they can help the families to heal and stay together?

Three quarters of the American public do not know what PTSD is.

The suicide and attempted suicide rate has gone up every year.

Divorce rates have gone up in Military families.

While programs like the one I was just watching are wonderful, there are not enough of them. Sure they help the therapist become more aware but these programs should have begun in the beginning of sending them into Afghanistan and definitely by the time they were sent to Iraq they should have been well established.

Given the fact that when Vietnam veterans came home, families had no clue what was going on and time was wasted. Now they still don't know what's going on. With the media paying attention we are closer to informing people about it,but these are baby steps when we need Olympian speed skaters taking the message from coast to coast.

So where are the veterans groups? The DAV? The VFW? The American Legion? Why aren't all of them doing programs on this? There are so many people that could be helping but they are no where to be found. If you are a member of any organization or religious group that is not stepping up, get them to. If they are then thank them and praise the daylights out of them so they know it's well worth their time.

One more thing. The above numbers are from Afghanistan and Iraq veterans. They do not include the Gulf War veterans, Vietnam veterans or the Korean veterans. They also don't include the few remaining WWII veterans.

We have adult children of Vietnam veterans with secondary PTSD. They are dealing with the trauma of being raise by a Vietnam veteran with no treatment.

They blame themselves for the way their parent acted. The veteran blames him/herself. The spouse blames her/himself. When they know what PTSD did inside of the veteran, they can forgive but they can't until they understand first.

That's what I've been doing but I can post until my fingers fall off, create videos until I can't stand the sound of music any longer, but none of it will do any good unless people are willing to seek the information.


Senior Chaplain Kathie "Costos" DiCesare
International Fellowship of Chaplains
Namguardianangel@aol.com
http://www.namguardianangel.org/
http://www.woundedtimes.blogspot.com/
www.youtube.com/NamGuardianAngel
"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington