SOS from VFW: Combat Vets in Trouble

After posting about the idiot denying the reality of PTSD, I have found restoration of my fellow informed readers of reality. This article was followed by over 300 comments and most of them were positive. They comment on how they are veterans or have someone in their family suffering from PTSD. After you read the article, please read some of the comments and know, the plague of deniers of PTSD are the minority and have everything to be ashamed of instead of the veterans.

SOS from VFW: Combat Vets in Trouble
David Wood

Their stories are legion. The stress behind their stories, stress that combat veterans often hold tight inside, can be painful and destructive.

There was the Marine in Afghanistan who told me he has post-traumatic stress disorder so bad he can't stand to be safe at home, where he sometimes drops to the floor, thinking a loud noise is an incoming mortar. He keeps volunteering to return to combat, where his hair-trigger reflexes make sense. Where he's comfortable.

For veterans, telling their stories can be helpful. Having someone listen? Priceless.

With a new generation of veterans returning from combat and military suicides on an alarming rise, listening is the idea behind a global alert from the Veterans of Foreign Wars to its 2.2 million members. Find a vet. Offer to listen.

"The need has overwhelmed the capacity of government and civilian mental health centers,'' said VFW Commander Glen M. Gardner, Jr., who served as a Marine in Vietnam.

"I urge every VFW member to get immediately involved by seeking out and extending a hand of friendship and help'' to local veterans. "Our government cannot battle this enemy alone, nor should that 22-year-old combat veteran," Gardner said in a May 29 appeal to his members.
For most combat veterans, the stress of wartime deployment eases over time.

"Whether people have full-blown PTSD or just some of the symptoms, most people do get better over a short period of time with the support of family and friends," said Dr. Sonja Batten, deputy director of the Pentagon's Center of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury.
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Combat Vets in Trouble

Also on this

VFW chief: Look out for struggling soldiers

By Kristin M. Hall - The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Jun 3, 2009 13:55:21 EDT

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The head of the Veterans of Foreign Wars organization is urging more than 1.6 million veteran members to reach out to soldiers who may be considering suicide.

Commander in Chief Glen Gardner issued the open letter following the announcement last week that 11 soldiers from Fort Campbell, Ky., have committed suicide in 2009 — the highest of any Army post.

The Army reached the highest rate of suicides on record last year.

Gardner said Wednesday that veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan are more likely to open up to other combat veterans about personal or psychological problems.

“Your credibility goes up greatly with these young people” if you have served in combat, he said. “VFW people are not counselors, they are not trained to be counselors, but those of us who have been in combat can listen and understand what they are talking about.”

He asked the members to listen, be sympathetic and take soldiers to professional counseling through the military or the Veterans Affairs. He said this is first time the Kansas City, Mo.-based veterans group has asked its members to seek out both active duty and National Guard and Reserve soldiers who may be struggling.
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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/06/ap_vfw_plea_troops_060309/