If they come home broken, we need to fix them.
Running up to mid-term elections I really wanted to keep a laser focus on the horrible job Scott Walker has done as governor of Wisconsin. It is really pretty easy to point out his lies because he does it do often. However, this past week a conservative hate-mongering radio host shot off his mouth and pissed me off.
On his October 14 program, Michael Savage said "What are you, the only generation that had PTSD? The only generation that's depressed? I'm sick of it. I can't take the celebration of weakness and depression."
I am veteran. I served in Germany on the East/West German border during the Cold War. I served in the 101st Airborne Division. I was honorably discharged one year prior to the Gulf War. Many of my friends, my brothers, also served in the Gulf War. Some of them came home with various illnesses, Gulf War Syndrome, others came home with PTSD.
More below the fold.
Shell shock, battle fatigue, post-traumatic stress disorder—it goes by many names, is very real, and impacts many American fighting men and women.
In early August of 1943, General George S. Patton, in two separate incidents slapped and berated soldiers suffering from battle fatigue. The incidents were combined into one incident in the 1970 movie Patton, in which George C. Scott, in his portrayal of the famous general, uttered the lines, "Don’t admit this yellow bastard .... There’s nothing the matter with him. I won’t have the hospitals cluttered up with these sons of bitches who haven’t got the guts to fight."
My dad, a World War II Navy veteran, was infuriated watching that scene. My dad had a non-combat injury in 1944 and was hospitalized through the latter part of 1944 and early 1945 while a broken leg mended. My dad was in the same ward as wounded Marines returning from the island campaigns. As a young child, I did not understand that scene in Patton. I did not understand the damage a significant emotional event, or multiple events, could have on a soldier in combat. I still remember him telling me of the men suffering from what he called battle fatigue after watching Patton with him, trying to explain it to me—men whose bodies were safe in a hospital bed in California, but their minds were still in some godforsaken hellhole in the South Pacific.
Growing up, I saw the impacts of PTSD on my own family. I don't think anyone would ever admit it, but I am sure that a couple of my uncles who served suffered from PTSD. At that time, it was something to be hidden. It was acceptable to drown it in alcohol and to become an alcoholic because of the war, but it was not acceptable to admit that as a young man you had seen things that your mind could no longer comprehend, could no longer deal with. If you had reached your physical breaking point it would have been accepted, but reaching a mental/emotional breaking point? That was considered a weakness.
Things were not much better for our Korean War and Vietnam War veterans suffering from PTSD. The Korean War veterans were forgotten and ignored, the returning Vietnam veterans were treated as pariahs when they came home. Those suffering from PTSD were often portrayed as troubled, violent, drunken vets who could not find their place in society. One look at how Vietnam veterans were portrayed by Hollywood speaks volumes of the perception of these young men and women who served in that godawful war.
Stereotypical veteran characters of the era display general distrust, paranoia, anger, and frustration associated with their service and reception at home.
In his book, Vietnam at the Movies, Michael Lanning wrote, "The returning Vietnam vet, according to the movies, arrived back in the States at best disturbed by his war experiences and at worst unable to cease destroying and killing."
It is rare to see a well-adjusted veteran in entertainment media, or one who is working through PTSD in a positive light. This just makes it that much harder for returning veterans to admit they have a problem and seek treatment.
Rants like this one from Michael Savage only make it more difficult for a veteran suffering from PTSD to seek treatment:
SAVAGE: I am so sick and tired of everyone with their complaints about PTSD, depression. Everyone wants their hand held, and a check -- a government check. What are you, the only generation that had PTSD? The only generation that's depressed? I'm sick of it. I can't take the celebration of weakness and depression.
See, I was raised a little differently. I was raised to fight weakness. I was raised to fight pain. I was raised to fight depression. Not to give into it. Not to cave into it and cry like a little baby in bed. "Boo-hoo-hoo. Boo-hoo-hoo." Everyone has depression in their life. Everyone has sickness and sadness and disease. And loss of relatives. And loss of career. Everyone has depression in their life. But if the whole nation is told, "boo-hoo-hoo, come and get a medication, come and get treatment, talk about mental illness." You know what you wind up with? You wind up with Obama in the White House and liars in every phase of the government. That's what you wind up with. It's a weak, sick, nation. A weak, sick, broken nation. And you need men like me to save the country. You need men to stand up and say stop crying like a baby over everything. Stand up already. Stop telling me how sick you are and sad you are. Talk about the good things in your life.
When have you last heard that? Oh, everyone's holding their hand. "Oh, welcome to Good Morning America, sir. You almost committed suicide, how interesting. Please tell us your story." Maybe a young child who's on the edge can commit suicide. What a country. No wonder we're being laughed at around the world. No wonder ISIS can defeat our military. Take a look at that. Take a look at that, why people aren't even getting married anymore to have children. They don't even have the guts to raise a child. The men are so weak, and so narcissistic, all they want to do is have fun. Bunch of losers. Just go have a brewski and look at the 49ers, you idiot, you. They won't even get married, won't have a child, it takes too much of a man to do that. What a country. You're not a man, you're a dog. A dog raises babies better than most American men do.
Savage never served in the military. He never had his entire being stripped away from him and then rebuilt in basic training. He has never spent hours upon hours at a rifle range honing his ability to kill his fellow man. He has never slept in the mud, never contemplated his life expectancy in minutes (if war broke out when I was in the Fulda Gap, my life expectancy as a 19-year-old combat engineer was nine minutes). He has never had to perform unspeakable acts, he has never had to witness those same acts. The only senseless violence he has ever seen in his life has been on television and movie screens.
He is the type of person who is all too willing to send my brothers and sisters into harm's way while he sits behind a microphone berating them for coming home broken from a war that he cheered for, that he wanted, that he knew he would not have to fight. He is a chickenhawk, all for military intervention as long as he does not have to fight it.
I don't know what could possibly go wrong in a person's life so that they have the inability to show compassion like Savage. I do not understand how a person like that can have a syndicated radio show heard by millions across the country. How hate can be a value. I was raised a bit differently than Savage, and even after the Army tore me down and built me back up, I still have compassion for my fellow man. This is not, and should not, be turned into a liberal thing, or a conservative thing. PTSD knows no boundaries. It does not care who you voted for in the last election. It does not care if you are a liberal veteran or a conservative veteran, and people like Savage are clueless morons who should not be shooting off their uneducated, and harmful, opinions over the airwaves.
To my veteran brothers and sisters, do not listen to this hee-hawing jackass. If you are suffering from PTSD, if you are suffering from depression, if you need someone to talk to—please, please seek treatment. It is not a sign of weakness to reach out for help, it is a sign of strength.
If you need help, please follow this link. Help is available, you do not have to suffer through this alone.