Chuck Hagel's Last Act Should Be Holding General Odierno Accountable For Suicides

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
November 26, 2014

Before Chuck Hagel leaves Department of Defense he needs to hold General Raymond T. Odierno accountable for the deplorable treatment of soldiers with PTSD. There is no excuse for allowing any of this to go without explaining to families why he failed to learn what PTSD was.

Last year, without having to explain anything to anyone, Odierno laid blame on the soldiers and their families. This was an interview given to David Wood for the Huffington Post.

"First, inherently what we do is stressful. Why do I think some people are able to deal with stress differently than others? There are a lot of different factors. Some of it is just personal make-up. Intestinal fortitude. Mental toughness that ensures that people are able to deal with stressful situations.

But it also has to do with where you come from. I came from a loving family, one who gave lots of positive reinforcement, who built up psychologically who I was, who I am, what I might want to do. It built confidence in myself, and I believe that enables you to better deal with stress. It enables you to cope more easily than maybe some other people.

Then he went on to fall back on his usual line about making them resilient

So with a soldier like that, who may be at risk of suicide, how do you build resilience, give him the confidence you got when you were growing up?

Most of the time, these are good kids. The reason they came in is because they wanted to make a better life for themselves. For me, that's number one. They are doing this for a positive reason. They want to improve themselves, improve their families' ability to live.

Studies show that if they have more confidence in themselves mentally -- for example, if they increase their education, they increase their abilities to do their job in the right way, become more physically fit and are able to do well in physical training -- this starts to build their confidence. Then we try to give them coping skills and, depending on the individual, get them linked spiritually into whatever they happen to believe in.

The other piece, which the [Army] Surgeon General is working now, is the triad of sleep, nutrition and physical fitness. We are finding that, especially in high-stress environments, lack of sleep and bad nutrition potentially decreases your resilience and ability to cope. So it's all of these things we are focusing on in order to help these individuals.

Now we know because of fantastic reporting being done in Texas exactly what this attitude had produced.

Injured Heroes, Broken Promises: Hundreds of Soldiers Allege Mistreatment at Army Warrior Transition Units Wounded soldiers found harassment and verbal abuse from commanders assigned to care for the injured.
By Scott Friedman, Eva Parks and David Tarrant

Filip came home to Fort Hood suffering from post-traumatic stress — haunted by things he had seen. Then came another nightmare; the 2009 Fort Hood shooting that left 13 dead.

Filip jumped into action — helping save the life of a wounded police officer. For his heroics The Army Times named him the 2010 "Army Soldier of the Year."

"I was just kind of in awe of the whole situation”, Filip said.

But Filip said he was treated like anything but a hero at Fort Hood's Warrior transition unit or "WTU," where the Army sent him to treat his post-traumatic stress.

"WTU made everything a lot worse," Filip said. "I mean physically and mentally — especially mentally."

In page after page of documents obtained by NBC 5 Investigates, soldiers describe harassment, disrespect and unfair treatment from WTU commanders in complaints made to the Army Ombudsman and directly to unit leaders.

In some complaints anger pours out. One injured soldier writes: "This is getting to the point where it is more stressful here than it is in a combat situation. There is no dignity or respect for us."

Another said: "My stress levels are sky high, my depression is at an all-time low and I have never felt so abused, so neglected as I do right now. I completed my tour my duty and all I need is treatment." One wounded soldier reports, " ... his 1st Sgt. has 'created a climate of intimidation.'" And still another said, "she was told she's weak because she cries."

Dr. Stephen Stahl, a world renowned psychiatrist hired to train staff at Fort Hood's WTU five years ago, said the complaints do not describe an environment designed to heal the wounds of war.

In his own study of the WTUs, Stahl found many unit leaders lacked an understanding of mental health issues and that many did not believe post-traumatic stress disorder was real.

Stahl believes that drove staff to treat soldiers with PTSD like slackers who need to "man-up and move-on."

"The idea is that you're weak, you're cowardly, you're worthless, you're not strong and it's your fault," Stahl said, adding that it created a mentality that can destroy a healing soldier's self-esteem. "It also makes them doubt their medical care or their psychiatric care. The same Army that's telling you you're a slacker or a dirt bag gives you treatment and medications. Are you going to take it?"

Here is a Mom,

Suicide watch: Returning military members need support, mother warns
KENS 5
Joe Conger
November 24, 2014

SAN ANTONIO -- Doris Dodgen of Universal City says her family bleeds red white and blue. The military was her husband's passion and most of her children, too.

"A lot of pride. A lot of dedication and devotion. And a lot of patriotism. They love our country," said Dodgen.

But Brenton, Doris remembers, had a particular fondness.

"Ever since he was so young, probably age 2, he started wearing camouflage," she said.

Brenton would realize that dream. The future lieutenant was deployed overseas in the Middle East as a signal officer in Operations Enduring Freedom and Spartan Shield.

"He took it very, very seriously," his mother added.

But back stateside, something changed.

"He did come back a little different, yes. And he wouldn't talk much this time around," said Dodgen.

But he did talk on Facebook, posting a brief note one late October evening. And before Doris could reach Killeen, Texas, her son was gone.

"And I can tell you at that point in time in my life, a huge part of me died," Dodgen said.

The Department of Defense noted a self-inflicted gunshot wound was the manner of death.
read more of the story here

They started telling us they were "addressing the issue" of military suicides and the stigma of seeking help, yet above all of this, we need to add in the simple fact that in 2013 alone, 11,000 soldiers were given bad conduct discharges. Top that off with how many were forced out because of downsizing and then it is easy to see how dangerous it has been for soldiers to be treated this badly.

We see it all the time in our own communities when they commit suicide or face off with law enforcement. We see it at the VA hospitals. We see it with the homeless veterans.

No one has been held accountable for any of this.

Here is more of the investigation

NBC 5 Investigates has learned a Pentagon Inspector General Report this summer also found "systemic issues and challenges with the selection and training of leaders" at WTU's across the country.

For years WTU leaders got only two weeks of training and just a couple of hours on mental health conditions like PTSD.

Jennifer Lawrence, a trainer with the U.S. Army who oversees the training nationwide, said two weeks was enough to get leaders started and that the Army responded to criticisms in the Inspector General's report by hiring more staff to create smaller classes. She said they also added a week of "resilience training" that’s designed to prepare WTU leaders for the stresses of caring for the injured.

“Once that foundation is laid they should continue to educate once they get to their WTU',” said Lawrence.

“You know you have nightmares,” said Sgt. Ngala Benn, a former squad leader at Fort Hood’s WTU, when describing PTSD.

The Army put him in charge of injured soldiers even though he too was suffering from PTSD and taking 20 prescribed medications after serving in Iraq.

“You're trying to re-live the stuff and you get up in the middle of the night and you're sleepwalking with a weapon in your hand or you can't sleep unless you have that weapon next to you,” recalled Benn. Benn said in hindsight he was surprised he was put in charge of a dozen soldiers dealing with similar problems and doesn’t think he should have ever been put in that leadership position given what he was dealing with at the time.

They are all waiting for someone to be held accountable for their suffering. Families of the veterans are waiting to be able to stop blaming themselves. PTSD veterans are waiting for someone to be held accountable for what the leaders failed to learn and do no matter how many billions they were given to help them heal.