Military reckons with the mental wounds of war

COMBAT GENERATION: BLOODLESS TRAUMA
Military reckons with the mental wounds of war

Staff Sgt. James Ownbey, a Marine who served in Iraq as an explosive ordnance disposal technician in 2007, and two other deployments, now suffers from a traumatic brain injury (TBI), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and numerous physical ailments. Ownbey and his wife, Sandy, recently bought a home in Hedgesville, W.Va., and he often commutes with her more than two hours each way to attend appointments at the Natinal Naval Hospital in Bethesda. (Photo by Whitney Shefte -- The Washington Post)

Story by Greg Jaffe Videos by Whitney Shefte
The Washington Post
Sunday, July 18, 2010
The 300-pound bomb blasted Marine Staff Sgt. James Ownbey's mine-resistant truck so high that it snapped power lines before it slammed to the dusty ground in western Iraq.

Ownbey, knocked briefly unconscious by the blast, awoke to suffocating black smoke and a swirling cloud of dirt. He felt for the vehicle's door, then stumbled into the sunlight where he was joined by the rest of his woozy, three-man crew. Their bodies were sore, but they looked fine.

Two years after the explosion Amos and Ownbey met again, this time in a cramped room at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda. Ownbey had been overtaken by terrifying panic attacks, puzzling memory loss and strange rib-snapping coughing fits that left him hospitalized for weeks at a time. Doctors diagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury, caused by battlefield concussions.

For Amos, seeing Ownbey's condition was the moment that the bloodless trauma of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars became tangible. "I thought we can't do this anymore," said Amos, referring to the military's slow response to treating PTSD and traumatic brain injury.

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Military reckons with the mental wounds of war