"You know, there were many times I've told my wife -- in just a state of panic, and just being so upset -- that I really wished I just died over there [in Iraq]," he said. "Cause if you just die over there, everyone writes you off as a hero."
You know all those great support our troops stickers and magnts people put everywhere? Do those people know what some in the Armed Forces are doing to soldiers who come home depressed and with bad cases of post traumatic stress disorder (ptsd)?
We ask these soldiers to sacrifice. And when they need to lean on someone after they've gone and bravely served, this country fails them.
It's a lesson that's unfortunately retaught to us with regularlity. that's what I learned when reading the transcript of Daniel Zwerdling's NPR report. More after the jump.
Soldier Tyler Jennings says that when he came home from Iraq last year, he felt so depressed and desperate that he decided to kill himself. Late one night in the middle of May, his wife was out of town, and he felt more scared than he'd felt in gunfights in Iraq. Jennings says he opened the window, tied a noose around his neck and started drinking vodka, "trying to get drunk enough to either slip or just make that decision."
Five months before, Jennings had gone to the medical center at Ft. Carson, where a staff member typed up his symptoms: "Crying spells... hopelessness... helplessness... worthlessness." Jennings says that when the sergeants who ran his platoon found out he was having a breakdown and taking drugs, they started to haze him. He decided to attempt suicide when they said that they would eject him from the Army.
This story is absolutely unbelievable. And it speaks to where our priorities are as a country. How can we keep troops over there, talk about raising troop levels when we're not even giving proper and necessary medical attention to the brave women and men who are serving now?
For instance, soldiers fill out questionnaires when they return from Iraq that are supposed to warn officials if they might be getting depressed, or suffering from PTSD, or abusing alcohol or drugs. But many soldiers at Ft. Carson say that even though they acknowledged on the questionnaires that they were having disturbing symptoms, nobody at the base followed up to make sure they got appropriate support. A study by the investigative arm of Congress, the Government Accountability Office, suggests it's a national problem: GAO found that about 80 percent of the soldiers who showed potential signs of PTSD were not referred for mental health follow-ups. The Pentagon disagrees with the GAO's findings.
80 percent. EIGHTY PERCENT! The same people who accuse us who were against the Iraq war of being cut and run, dirty hippies who want the terrorists to win, where are these bully pulpiteers now? Why aren't they speaking up for the servicepeople? Where are these patriots, and how come they are not standing up for those that stood up to serve in what's now become an utter debacle?
It's bad enough they're being put in harm's way once. But this goes beyond the worst kind of double jeopardy. To survive with huge emotional burdens and not get the needed support from the people that sent you there is absolutely wrong. But it's still worse than that. They're not just refusing these people help. They're turning them into pariahs and forcing them out of the Armed services so the military doesn't have to pay for benefits:
Richard Travis, formerly the Army's senior prosecutor at Ft. Carson, is now in private practice. He says that the Army has to pay special mental-health benefits to soldiers discharged due to PTSD. But soldiers discharged for breaking the rules receive fewer or even no benefits, he says.
Alex Orum's medical records showed that he had PTSD, but his officers expelled him from the Army earlier this year for "patterns of misconduct," repeatedly citing him on disciplinary grounds. In Orum's case, he was cited for such infractions as showing up late to formation, coming to work unwashed, mishandling his personal finances and lying to supervisors -- behaviors which psychiatrists say are consistent with PTSD.
Please, read the story, listen to it, tell people about it and do something about it!