PTSD numbers growing

PTSD numbers growing
by
Chaplain Kathie

40% of the soldiers, one out of three for Marines and half of the National Guards. Depending on who the reporters ask, they will get all kinds of numbers but given all the data that has been coming in on top of what was learned after Vietnam, these are the closest numbers I've seen.



There have been over 2 million deployed into Iraq and Afghanistan. Take a look back at the numbers from Vietnam.

If you think these numbers are too high to be real, here's something reporters forgot they already reported about.

The redeployment of forces contributed to the huge increase.

But the most troubling fact is, we have only seen the beginning. In 1978 a DAV study published this report.

Troops NumbersDuring the 15 years of the Vietnam conflict, around 2.4 million troops served there, according to a study of Pentagon data by the Heritage Center for Data Analysis. Some estimates put another 1 million troops in surrounding countries during that time. The U.S. started moving new troops into the Vietnam arena in 1956 and troop levels peaked in Vietnam in 1968 when nearly a half-million troops were there. Most news reports about current military engagement focus on the number of troops in Iraq now: 150,000 are there, with another 20,000 on the ground in Afghanistan, according to the Pentagon.

Unlike today's wars, the average time in a combat zone was 12 months and no redeployment. They faced death for one year and unless they wanted to stay in the military, they went back home without having to fear being sent back. Still they returned back to the same problems faced by today's veterans with the lack of jobs topping off a terrible year in hell.

While some in the media say that Afghanistan is the longest war, they forget how long troops were in Vietnam.

Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a long, costly armed conflict that pitted the communist regime of North Vietnam and its southern allies, known as the Viet Cong, against South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States. The war began in 1954 (thought conflict in the region stretched back to the mid-1940s), after the rise to power of Ho Chi Minh and his communist Viet Minh party in North Vietnam, and continued against the backdrop of an intense Cold War between two global superpowers: the United States and the Soviet Union. More than 3 million people (including 58,000 Americans) were killed in the Vietnam War; more than half were Vietnamese civilians. By 1969, at the peak of U.S. involvement in the war, more than 500,000 U.S. military personnel were involved in the Vietnam conflict. Growing opposition to the war in the United States led to bitter divisions among Americans, both before and after President Richard Nixon ordered the withdrawal of U.S. forces in 1973. In 1975, communist forces seized control of Saigon, ending the Vietnam War, and the country was unified as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam the following year.

The truth is, the DOD and the VA did not learn all the lessons from Vietnam and while we talk so much about the needs of the newer generation, the Vietnam veterans are forgotten in all of this. They are still waiting for the day to come when they are not still being left behind.

Reporters contact me on what is going on with our veterans and troops but they are only interested in the Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. If I try to tell them about a news story that just came out involving a Vietnam veteran, they don't want to hear it. Why? Don't they know if it had not been for Vietnam veterans, there would be nothing available for any of these newer veterans? Don't they know that none of them would have found the support to say anything about what was happening to them just like veterans from WWI, WWII and Korea?

Vietnam veterans are not "old news" any more than the veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan from the start of these wars are but no one seems willing to keep telling their stories. This insures the mistakes of the past will be repeated and we'll have another generation of veterans wondering if they still matter, more families wondering where to turn for help and justice and reporters sticking their fingers in their ears so they don't have to hear their cries.