Fort Drum leaders look at history of ancient wound

by
Chaplain Kathie

A rather ornery man said to me, "What do you know? I can track my ancestors back to the Revolutionary war!" as if telling me I didn't know what I was talking about. I smiled and stated, "Young roots. I can track mine back to the Trojan war. So what's your point?" War did not begin when the Patriots decided to get the British out of control. It didn't start when the Romans decided to conquer the world. It's started as soon as Cain killed Able.

Taking a look at the past generations of warfare in history is a great start to supporting the fact that what we now call PTSD has been around as long as man has. The only thing that really bothers me about this is too many people act as if they just began to study it. This is what I've been reading since I was handed a copy of it, now so old, it's yellowed and fragile.

This is when we knew it even though it had been happening to warriors since time began.

This is what we knew.

As you can see the term Post Traumatic Stress Disorder was already being used and it can be tied into the Greek language. Trauma is Greek for "wound." You can also see that we knew there were 500,000 veterans of the Vietnam war wounded by it. It also warned the numbers would go up and they did. We knew a lot for over 30 years but some people are acting as if the Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are the only ones suffering with it. The truth is that they are only the latest in a very long list of combat actions throughout history. It's just that no one did anything about it until the Vietnam veterans fought for it.

One of the little secrets about WWII is that there were many with PTSD and one of them was my husband's uncle. He was a Merchant Marine and his ship was hit by a Kamikaze pilot. He ended up with "shell shock" and spent the rest of his life living on a farm where he could be taken care of. Yes, PTSD can get that bad.

We have a friend, another Vietnam vet that came back home, worked up until last year even with PTSD but went over the edge and "flipped out" to the point where he will remain in a "home" for the rest of his life.

There are literally hundreds of thousands of their stories and the newer veterans are able to tell their's because of the Vietnam veterans finding the strength and courage to begin to speak out about this wound that followed them back from hell.

There are still some using the words "crazy vet" but then they'd be the type of person to use derogatory terms to describe anyone of "lesser" value in their eyes. It's easier than facing the fact that "crazy vet" was willing to risk his/her life for them and they were paying the price for it.

Anyway, with all we have known and for how long we've known it, I still find it very interesting that it's all been forgotten as if all of this is new and they are just coming to grips with the need of our veterans. By 1978 there were 70 outreach offices for veterans but the VA is just now understanding how vital these centers are. This is a quote from the same pamphlet.

"In its efforts to help these veterans, the million member Disabled American Veterans (DAV) funded the Forgotten Warrior Project research on Vietnam veterans by John P. Wilson, Ph.D. at Cleveland State University. That research resulted in providing counseling to these veterans in 1978. With 70 outreach offices across the United States, this DAV program served as a model for the Veterans Administration (VA) Operation Outreach program for Vietnam era veterans which was established approximately a year later."

This is part of the reason I get so angry with the Vietnam veterans still suffering without help to heal and why the newer veterans have to suffer at all. We knew it too long ago to have been this far behind in any of this but the same studies are being done and the same research is being done as if any of this is knew instead of as ancient as mankind. Taking a look back at the historical aspects of warfare and knowing humans are still human is a good step but it also proves the point, "those who do not learn from history are destined to repeat it" and in this case, leaving veterans to suffer because all the knowledge we gained was lost and no one will bother too look.

Drum leaders learn combat stress timeless
By SARAH M. RIVETTE
TIMES STAFF WRITER
SATURDAY, MAY 2, 2009


FORT DRUM — The military leadership here took the conversation about combat stress back 2,500 years Wednesday night to the time of Sophocles and the age of the Trojan War.

The point was to show that cases of soldier's heart, shell shock or post-traumatic stress disorder — names from different eras of the same malady — transcends time and advances in warfare.

"This is an ageless phenomenon and we are just starting to take a scientific look at it," said Brig. Gen. Kevin W. Mangum, the rear detachment commander for the division and post. "We've called it different things, but these soldiers are facing the stresses never faced before."

The presentation was brought to Fort Drum by Walter Reed Army Medical Center to help start conversations on soldier and family reintegration after a deployment. The two-hour presentation has been shown at various military bases throughout the country, but Fort Drum is the first Army post to participate.



Based on feedback, Gen. Mangum said this was definitely something he would like to see happen at the brigade and battalion level so soldiers have an interactive way to talk about combat stress and the reintegration process. Brigade and other rear detachment leadership felt the same way.

"It's a different venue to talk about soldiers and these issues," said Col. Willard M. Burleson III, commander of the 1st Brigade Combat Team. "It's human interaction and it's emotion. The impact of war on the soldier and the family has been the same since the beginning of time, and that combat stress hasn't changed."

There were three scenes from the plays "Ajax" and "Philoctetes." Both were soldiers during the time of the Trojan War and both were dealing with issues that stemmed from their service.

Ajax was enraged when he did not receive the armor of his fallen comrade, Achilles, and in madness slaughtered a herd of sheep and cattle. His wife, Tecmessa, and fellow sailors tried to talk him out of suicide but were unsuccessful.
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Drum leaders learn combat stress timeless