Real people, real families, real burdens come with PTSD

Sgt. Boyle's mom sent the following email out today. She is like too many other family members fighting a battle they should never have to fight so that the service given in honor is actually honored.

What the Boyle family has been going through is being repeated across the nation but we hardly ever hear their stories in newspapers, even less from the 24-7 cable news stations. We hear numbers but numbers never include the families. We hear body counts, but never hear about the actual counts of the casualties of war fallen by their own hand. We never hear about the families after left alone to carry on with their lives paying a price for the war no one ever seems to notice.

We will hear about them when they get into trouble because of PTSD, in other words, because of what they came home with embedded in their soul. We don't hear about how hard they tried to get help, tried to get someone to understand, give them hope, show them the way, open the door or even tell them how to pay their bills when they can no longer work. We don't hear about how many families have fallen apart because no one told them what PTSD is, what to do about it, how to fight this battle laid at their feet because someone they love was willing to lay down his/her life for the sake of this nation doing what few have been willing to do.

Sgt. Boyle is talking about what happened to him for one simple reason. He doesn't want anyone else to go thru what happened to him. The courage he had and still has is fed by compassion. If veterans like him did not put others first, they would not be willing to speak, to share, so that things can change. If they simply suffer in silence, nothing would change for anyone.

Read some of what they have been going thru so the next time you hear another number being released, you are fully aware behind that number, there is a soldier suffering along with an entire family. None of this should happen to any of them.

Below is a Washington Times story on my son and others suffering from combat related PTSD, traumatic brain and other injuries. Fortunately due to the Army's own military records my son was able to easily prove these injuries to the Veterans Affairs Administration and is now collecting combat related disability. However, due to how he was discharged it took several months to get the high rating he did, causing huge stress and added depression, mentally and financially. It's no wonder we have so staggering numbers of suicides and homelessness amongst fomer military service members.

It is still a struggle every day, both mentally and financially but we are all getting through one day at a time. Learning how to be a civilian has been difficult enough for someone like Adam whose whole life and dreams have been the military since his freshman year in high school JROTC. Adam will eventually receive his deserved honorable medical discharge, and all that entails, retroactively with the help of his wonderful attorney who is working pro-bono out of outrage at how our combat veterans are being treated after all thier sacrifices.

PS Ironically Adam was not aware this WT story came out until last night as he did the interview months ago. He thought the story went away; I'm grateful for others like him that it did not.
More sad stories of mistreatment of our service members and veterans, including Chuck Luther who played a valuable role in helping Adam after he was disposed of after combat, including help in connecting him with Jason Perry, along with Carissa Picard.
(THANK YOU CHUCK AND CARISSA!!!):
http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/424/index.html

Military misconduct may be sign of PTSD


Navy doctor gives warning

By Amanda Carpenter



What's being done

One of the soldiers is Special Operations Command Sgt. Adam Boyle.

Sgt. Boyle was thrown out of the Army because of a "pattern of misconduct," even though he had been diagnosed with PTSD. As a combat veteran who served two tours in Iraq, Sgt. Boyle began experiencing intense pangs of guilt and anger and was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder at a stress clinic in Iraq.



"I was always in the field before then," he recalled. "I did everything you can imagine from patrols to raids to capturing enemy POWs, interrogations, reconnaissance by fire. Everything you can imagine that put me in harm's way, and I was OK with it."

The bad feelings began to set in after two of his buddies were killed, one of them newly married with a child. "Those deaths haunted me, the idea of their families back home without them," he said.

After his diagnosis, Sgt. Boyle was sent to North Carolina's Fort Bragg, an assignment he resented because he thought he should be fighting the war. At Fort Bragg, he was given heavy antidepressants and sleeping aids that he said caused him to oversleep and miss formation on several occasions, a major transgression in the military.

He wanted to return to Iraq to fight, but the medications barred him from more deployments and he became miserable and agitated. Sgt. Boyle went on to spar with commanding officers who, he said, were unaware of his combat experience. He drank heavily, couldn't control his rage and ended up in trouble with the law.

He reached the tipping point when he experienced a flashback while supervising a session at the firing range at Fort Bragg.

"I was supposed to be keeping an eye on [the soldiers], keep them safe and doing the right thing," Sgt. Boyle recalled. "At one point, I went into a flashback into a firefight, and I was in Iraq. And during that flashback, I zoned out and forgot what I was doing.

"I snapped out of it and realized I missed the whole firing sequence, and it scared the hell out of me. I can't operate as a soldier if I can't concentrate on a firing range like that. That helped me realize I had to get out."

At that point, in consultation with his psychiatrist, Sgt. Boyle began seeking a medical discharge based on his PTSD. But the process was slow; he was allotted only one hour per month with his psychiatrist to plan proceedings and receive counseling for his existing problems.

Some of those problems were documented in a domestic violence complaint filed by a former girlfriend who said Sgt. Boyle assaulted her, although she never brought charges.

"His command has been contacted numerous times by myself and friends trying to get Adam's behavior under control," she said in the complaint. "I would like to see him get serious help and be removed from anyone else he could cause harm to."
read more here
Military misconduct may be sign of PTSD