Veterans Remember, Survivors Relive

There are a lot of people in this country trying to suggest that PTSD is something new. It makes life easier on them to write off the veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan so they won't have to care about what happens. If they believe they are criminal frauds trying to suck off the system instead of what they really are, then no one has to care about what happens to them. It happens all the time just as advocates are making headway getting rid of the stigma. What cannot be dismissed is this is not a generational problem. It is as old as man. It is not a national problem because all nations entering into warfare have had to make the choice to do the right thing or the easy thing.

We seem to be the nation sending the most into combat but that has never translated into being the first to be able to care for them when they come home. We pride ourselves on having the best military in the world but we don't seem bothered by the fact we are not the best at taking care of our veterans. We may lead in battle but we need to be able to lead in peace afterwards.

This is a great story by Lily Casura about Vietnam veterans. Change the name of the military operation and the years and you have what many of our new veterans face today. The lesson to be learned here is that if we don't take care of the newer veterans today without excuses, 30 or 40 years from now we will be paying the price for allowing them to suffer.

August 23, 2010
Veterans Remember, Survivors Relive: Ken Jones on Vietnam, PTSD and Beyond
by
Lily Casura

Ken Jones, @AKVet on Twitter, is a Vietnam veteran, Ph.D. psychologist, and trail runner, with much to say to our current generation of veterans, starting with "been there, done that" -- and come to terms with it. He's a joy to "follow" on Twitter, but recently he took the time to really spell out what a few of his combat experiences, and coming to terms with their resulting PTSD, had been like. (He's also the author of two free, downloadable e-books on combat and PTSD, which are mentioned in the piece, with hyperlinks that take you to them.)

Another Twitter fan, @BillNigh, took the time to collate some of Ken's recent stream-of-consciousness utterances about being a Vietnam veteran and his own experiences with PTSD into something we can all learn from. Thanks, Bill, and thanks, Ken. Here is Bill's condensing of what Ken wrote on the Web in early August:

"Ken Jones has several chapters in his life that relate to his military tour of service. He suffered battle wounds and PTSD. Now, from a healthy place, and a giving heart, he wants to help fellow, contemporary, vets return Stateside. He offers two free ebooks to anyone interested in the combat experience and in PTSD, "Life After Combat" and "When Our Troops Come Home". Listed below is a stream of consciousness set of posts that he did recently on Twitter on Friday August 6, 2010."

Herewith Ken's reflections:


"We have a "Support Our Troops" effort going on today to get the word out on the two free e-books I wrote about combat induced PTSD. I thought I'd give you a bit of background about how these books came to be.
read more here
Veterans Remember Survivors Relive