Showing posts with label table tennis champ. Show all posts
Showing posts with label table tennis champ. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Robert Hugee, Vietnam vet, PTSD and table tennis

For Hugee, table tennis more than just a game
Competition, camaraderie provide therapeutic boost for Vietnam War vet

By JEFF NATIONS/Journal sports editor

MARTINSBURG - Robert Hugee didn't bring home a gold medal following his latest trip to compete in the National Veterans Golden Age Games.

Hugee's hardware for taking second in table tennis at this year's Games (June 1-June 5) came in a silver shade, not exactly the accustomed finish for a player described as "the man with the Midas touch." But for Hugee, a seven-time gold medalist in the sport, the reward for competing comes much earlier and lasts much longer than the awards ceremony. The 62-year-old Falling Waters resident and Vietnam War veteran finds a refuge in the game, and a sense of camaraderie in the Golden Age Games that helps him maintain a fulfilling, active life despite the long-term lingering effects of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

"I found the sport late," said Hugee, a Brooklyn, N.Y., native who moved to the Eastern Panhandle in 1994 to participate in the Martinsburg Veteran Administration Hospital's PTSD program. "A lot of people remember playing table tennis as a basement game. I found the sport when I was recovering from my addiction to cocaine and crack cocaine. So I found it late, but I loved it."

An Army infantry sergeant and squad leader in Vietnam from 1967-1968, Hugee returned to the United States determined to resume his civilian life. Despite receiving no treatment for his PTSD - which wasn't diagnosed until years after his military service ended - Hugee maintained a "normal" life.

"The VA had no way of dealing with PTSD at that point," Hugee said. "So they misdiagnosed a lot of people at that time. I had relatives who were on Thorazine and really got wacked out on that stuff."

But in the early 1980s, he began a substance abuse-fueled downward spiral that haunted Hugee for most of a decade.
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