No Excuse For Fort Hood Mistreatment of Soldiers With PTSD

The news was stunning to many. NBC 5 and Dallas Morning News teamed up to investigate reports of wounded soldiers being mistreated at Fort Hood, Fort Sam Houston and Fort Bliss.

The soldiers returned home injured, both physically and mentally, and were once again under attack as they were ridiculed, harassed and threatened by commanders assigned to help the recover.

It was one thing to know what was going on and quite another to read how many more were being treated like this.

"Howard said the WTU medical staff tried to help but the unit’s non-medical commanders treated him more like a drunk and a troublemaker who needed to be punished, not a soldier suffering from PTSD who needed compassion."

It was so bad a psychiatrist quit.

Dr. Stephen M. Stahl, a psychiatrist who worked closely with the transition program at Fort Hood, left disillusioned with the Army’s understanding of PTSD. The sense was the disorder wasn’t real or that it was a weakness, he said.

While the general public hears that the military is doing this and that to help PTSD soldiers, the "this" is above and "that" that is a sin. But hey, why have a story like this hit the 24-7 news stations on a national level? Why let the American public know what is actually going on in this country and why they are seeing more and more veterans suffering right in their own communities?

Here are just a few of the stories tied to Fort Hood this year.

Specialist Gage Schellin Age 22 Investigation into Specialist Gage Schellin’s death continues at Fort Hood, where he was stationed. He had joined the Army two years earlier and returned in the spring from an 8-month deployment in Afghanistan.

Spc. Adrian Orlando Maganacasanova age 28 FORT HOOD — Officials released the name of a soldier found unresponsive Friday in his Killeen residence. Spc. Adrian Orlando Maganacasanova, 28, whose home of record is listed as Palmdale, Calif., entered active-duty service in February 2008 as a petroleum supply specialist. He was assigned to 615th Aviation Support Battalion, 1st Air Cavalry Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, at Fort Hood since February 2011.

Omar J. Gonzalez Only five months after a senior neuropsychologist in charge of Fort Hood’s outpatient psychiatry clinic revealed to WND a crisis in psychological testing and treatment at the U.S. Army post, a decorated war veteran who sought therapy at the installation is now in federal custody for jumping the White House fence and bursting through the executive mansion doors. On Sept. 19, Omar J. Gonzalez, a 42-year-old Army veteran who had deployed to Iraq three times and was injured by a homemade bomb, jumped over the north fence, sprinted across the lawn and was stopped only after he entered the White House doors.

Sgt. Triston James Johnson, 23, Houston, entered active duty service in October 2009 as a combat engineer, according to a news release from the post. He had been assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, since November 2012. Johnson deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation New Dawn from April 2010 to March 2011.

Sgt. Kameron Alexander Womack, 24, of St. Louis, Mo., entered active-duty service in August 2008, as a combat engineer. He was assigned to 8th Brigade Engineer Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, since June 2014.

Sgt. Gene Robert Brandes Jr., a 28-year-old native of Oak Ridge, was found unresponsive in his barracks room at Fort Hood, Texas on May 27. Sgt. Brandes has served in the military for nearly 8 years, entering in August of 2006 as a PATRIOT Launching Station enhanced operator/maintainer, according to a press release issued by the public affairs office. He was assigned to 4th Battalion, 5th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 69th Air Defense Artillery Brigade in Fort Hood since April 2014.

Staff Sgt. Heidi Lynn Ruh 32 Fort Hood soldier has died of injuries suffered last week in a noncombat-related incident in Kosovo. Fort Hood officials on Tuesday announced the death of Staff Sgt. Heidi Lynn Ruh of Barrington, Illinois. She died at Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo following an incident May 9. No other details were available Tuesday. The matter is under investigation by the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command. Ruh joined the military in January 2003 as a biomedical equipment specialist and was assigned to the 1st Medical Brigade at Fort Hood. She was attached to Kosovo Force's Multinational Battle Group-East.

Chief Warrant Officer Deric M. Rasmussen, 33, of Oceanside, California, died May 11, in Mazar E Sharif, Afghanistan, as the result of a non-combat incident. He was assigned to the Company C, 1st Battalion, 227th Aviation Regiment, 1st Air Cavalry Brigade, Fort Hood,

Shooting at Fort Hood Spc. Ivan A. Lopez, 34, the alleged shooter, also wounded 16 other military personnel. Investigators are still piecing together a motive for his deadly spree.

Sgt. 1st Class Daniel Ferguson, 39, threw his body against the entryway of a door and became a human shield during the shooting. Sgt. Timothy Owens, 37, and Staff Sgt. Carlos Lazaney-Rodriguez, 38, were also killed in the violent incident.

Now, we can keep settling for the national press to zero in on what they want to focus on, or we can let them know what we expect out of them. If we do nothing, if we say nothing, if we demand nothing, then nothing will change for the men and women we claim to support.

If you are still wondering why suicides are so high go to the links and watch the videos. If you're still wondering why someone doesn't do something, then you failed to pay attention to what they already did. They told us one thing while shafting soldiers and that, that should have caused all of us to scream so loudly no one could ignore us.