When Will the DOD Do the Right Thing on PTSD?

Delinquent Debt for Dignified Duty
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
September 22, 2015

Nothing that happened to service members and veterans should have been a shock to anyone in the Department of Defense but over a decade of trying to "prevent suicides" they are scratching their heads wondering what they are missing.

The problem is, they've been missing all of it since WWI. That's how long they've been studying what war does to those who fight in them but instead of working off what was learned back then, they must have thought the basic design of the human mind must have changed. Now they are funding rat studies as if rats have emotions or grieve for one of their own.

If you look up the definition of dignified “having or showing a composed or serious manner that is worthy of respect” they should have added in “up to and including their lives” because that is exactly how high of a price service members are willing to pay.

When asked about the reason politicians start wars, they say “it’s above my pay grade” because they risk their lives for those they are with, not the ones sending them.

When the DOD talks about military suicides, they use double speak as deadly as forked tongue snakes.

According to one 1859 account, the native proverb that the "white man spoke with a forked tongue" originated as a result of the French tactic of the 1690s, in their war with the Iroquois, of inviting their enemies to attend a Peace Conference, only to be slaughtered or captured.

They tell the American people they understand PTSD while spending billions on "prevention" and we don't complain. After all, no amount of money is too much to spend on them. While telling us that, they turn around and kick out thousands, mistreat even more and force even more to just "suck it up" so they can pretend they've done something. Truth proves none of it is true since the suicide rate went up within the military and among veterans. But by the time we are made aware that most of the betrayed will have suffered for what the military failed to do, it will be far too late to make up for any of their suffering.

Then as the brass signed bad paper discharges, The LA Times Reported Ex-troops with highest suicide risk often don't qualify for mental care appropriately enough, on April 1, 2015. Yes, April Fools Day and considering it was a dirty trick to play on those few among us willing to die for someone else, it made perfect sense.

More than 140,000 troops have left the military since 2000 with less-than-honorable discharges, according to the Pentagon.

Veterans groups have recently taken up the cause. They point to a 2010 study showing that among Marines deployed to war, those diagnosed with PTSD were 11 times more likely to be kicked out for misconduct.

Of those suicides, 403 were among ex-service members whose discharges were "not honorable" — for a wide range of misconduct, from repeatedly disrespecting officers to felony convictions. An additional 380 occurred among veterans with "uncharacterized" discharges, the designation used for troops who leave in fewer than 180 days for a variety of nondisciplinary reasons.

All this reminds this New Englander of the Salem Witchcraft Trials

In January of 1692, the daughter and niece of Reverend Samuel Parris of Salem Village became ill. When they failed to improve, the village doctor, William Griggs, was called in. His diagnosis of bewitchment put into motion the forces that would ultimately result in the death by hanging of nineteen men and women. In addition, one man was crushed to death; seven others died in prison, and the lives of many were irrevocably changed.

Back then the accused were given two choices, confess or be tested. If they tried to drown an accused "witch" and she died, then she had to be innocent but she was still dead. Giles Cory had an answer after being accused.

“It is said that Corey urged the executioners to increase the weight which was crushing him, that he told them it was of no use to expect him to yield, that there could be but one way of ending the matter, and that they might as well pile on the rocks. Calef says, that, as his body yielded to the pressure, his tongue protruded from his mouth, and an official forced it back with his cane. Some persons now living remember a popular superstition, lingering in the minds of some of the more ignorant class, that Corey’s ghost haunted the grounds where his barbarous deed was done; and that boys, as they sported in the vicinity, were in the habit of singing a ditty beginning thus: ‘More weight! More weight! Giles Corey cried!’”

It is easy to complain about the problems veterans face at the VA but only easy if you didn't know what was going on for decades as more and more sessions of Congress promised to fix all of it, as they spent more and more money only to be followed by more reports leading to them being able to spend more and more money on stuff they already paid for long ago.

Veterans don't blame the VA.  They blame congress just as service members blame the DOD.  So when exactly do they stop adding more weight to crush the accused and start taking responsibility? Maybe in around another 40 years the same way they were finally forced to retreat on what they did to 200,000 Vietnam veterans. 80,000 Vietnam Veterans Wrongly Discharged May Get Benefits for PTSD finally but no telling when it will be made right for the OEF and OIF veterans.