Kansas City Gulf War Veteran Fights Moral Injury of PTSD

Kansas City veteran copes with moral injury from war
KSHB News
Patrick Fazio
Oct 22, 2015

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, is often blamed for the 22 American veterans who commit suicide every day, but a lesser known condition may also play a role.

Moral injury is recognized by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and can occur from experiencing an event that “shatters moral and ethical expectations.”

Moral injury pain

“It horrifies me,” said Ted John, a retired U.S. Marine in Kansas City who remembers what he saw overseas during Operation Desert Storm. “I see a stack of bodies about four feet high … realizing just how many people we killed.”

Two decades later, John said the horrors of war caught up to him.

“I just quit,” John said. “Thinking that if I killed myself, it would stop the pain.”

Instead, John checked himself into a hospital two years ago. Doctors diagnosed him with PTSD as well as moral injury.
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**Again, reminder it is not "22 a day" but veterans are in general double the civilian population rate. Someday they'll stop using what is easy and start to tell the truth. The fact remains that with all the awareness, all that has been done, coming home should actually be easier than surviving combat. That is the saddest part of all.