Suck it up and drive on?

Well they can't exactly hitch a ride back to the United States right after a bomb blows up, so yes, they do have to "suck it up and move on" and they do this all the time. They need to keep functioning for as long as they need to do it, but what happens after? What comes when they are back in their barracks or one of the outposts they are sleeping in? What comes when they can't get it out of their heads and no one is talking about any of it? Do they think it's just them feeling the way they do?

When police officers and firefighters go back to their stations, they have a tactical debriefing but then they also have a human one. Chaplains come in and are there if they want or need to talk about what went on so they can deal with it and move on ready for the next time. Otherwise they end up stuffing all of it into the back of their minds and push on past the wound taking control over their lives until they can't just suck it up anymore. What good does that do anyone? What good does it do to let them just stew over all of it when they can face the fact they are just humans and have just lived through something abnormal to other humans?

It would be a wonderful day when all of our troops had someone to talk to after something happens but that day won't come soon enough. Can't the units have someone trained to at least be able to listen when one of their own needs to talk and get it out? That way it won't just be stuffed into the back of their mind allowed to grow and take control until there is a more "convenient" time to let them talk. Think of having a horrific tragedy happen right after they arrive in Iraq or Afghanistan. Then think they don't feel able to talk about any of it. Then more and more and more things happen piling up on top of the first time. Then think of it happening over and over again for 12 months or 15 months. What do you think that does to a person?

Now picture finally figuring out that you can't just suck it up anymore while you're back home with your family and friends and the normality of life settles in. Instead of being able to go and talk to someone to help you heal from it all, you end up getting orders to deploy and then have to focus on that instead of what is happening inside of you. Do you now think we have a huge problem and this is most of the reason we're seeing higher numbers than we did after Vietnam?

Ok then think of this. The majority of Vietnam veterans did one 12 month tour and then that was it. That was all. They were back home. That produced 500,000 PTSD wounded by 1978. These redeployments increase the risk of PTSD by 50% for each time sent back and we have some on their 5th tour. Any idea what we are facing now?

The RAND study said we're looking at 300,000 with PTSD and 320,000 with TBI. Not even close. Within the next couple of years this could very well find us with over a million with PTSD and most of the ones they think have only TBI, they are discovering a lot of them also have PTSD or have been misdiagnosed with TBI when it is PTSD. Not a great place to be when Afghanistan has been going on since 2001 and Iraq since 2003.

Suck it up and drive on


That’s the soldier’s motto. But what happens when they get home from combat and find they need help with more than just physical wounds?

BY ERIC JOHNSON


AUGUSTA, GA - When you hear that Thunder Over Augusta is honoring our Wounded Warriors, your mind probably conjures up images of amputees.

Soldiers always return from combat missing something, and when it’s a foot or an arm or a leg, it’s easier for the rest of us to understand. We can’t really understand, of course, but we can imagine what it must be like to have a piece of us so horribly, permanently gone.

And while Fort Gordon’s Eisenhower Army Medical Center and the VA’s Active Duty Rehab Unit are both far too full of soldiers with those obvious injuries, our current wars are sending home thousands of warriors with wounds like traumatic brain injury (TBI) and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that aren’t quite so noticeable.

According to the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center, approximately a third of patients treated for battle-related injuries in 2008 suffered from TBI, and while the U.S.

Army Medical Department’s Office of the Surgeon General cautions against calling TBI the “signature injury” of our current wars, it’s tough not to think of it that way.

Until recently, treatment for TBI and PTSD amounted to little more than a slap on the back and a push toward the battlefield.

Suck it up and drive on.

Now, thanks to the Warrior Transition Brigade, that attitude is starting to change.

“When I came back the first time, five guys from my unit killed themselves,” King says.

“You come back home and meet with the doctors, but you’re not the same. You’re thinking you’re the same because you’ve survived all this time doing what you have to do, and you’re used to it. You’re more to yourself about a lot of things, but they’re telling you it’s fine — it’ll be OK in a couple of months.”

Suck it up and drive on.

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Suck it up and drive on