He died back in 1975, and his death was so unnecessary. We were serving together on the Harold E. Holt, a destroyer with a crew of around 220 men. The Vietnam War had just ended, and our ship, which was located in the vicinity of Vietnam, was called to rescue the
SS Mayaguez
, a US cargo ship captured by the Khmer Rouge.
USS Harold E. Holt provided a boarding platform for the assault to retake the captured ship. The assault made world headlines just weeks after the fall of Saigon. Ford and Kissinger were on the cover of newspapers with big smiles on their faces as the Harold E Holt towed the Mayaguez to safety. This incident was reportedly an important statement of US resolve following recent US policy failures with Watergate and Vietnam. Lost in some of the euphoria was the fact that 41 US servicemen died in this incident to save a ship --- the crew of the Mayaguez was released later unharmed by the Khmer Rouge, perhaps through the intervention by China or Israel (diplomacy apparently was never a strong suit of the Republicans).
Below are some photos from our "cruise book" taken during the Mayaguez incident.
Anyway, this story isn't about the Mayaguez and the footnote in history resulting from that incident. It's about what followed. (If interested, read
here
about how key leaders in Congress were notified about US intervention rather than consulted and how force was viewed as a way of reasserting US dominance in the world)
Everyday life onboard a ship is usually pretty dull. I speak about this with authority, because I spent several years of my life floating around and in the Gulf of Tonkin. I had a chance to read a lot. Others played cards. Still others told stories to each other about life before the war. Nearly everyone counted down the days until we would be back in the states. Still others, including myself, kept track of the days left until their commitment ended. Our battle was not with the Viet Cong; it was with ennui.
I was waiting in the Philippines for the Harold E Holt following the Mayaguez incident. I was transferred from the USS Midway, an aircraft carrier, to my new ship. I joined the ship one month into a 9 month long cruise that took us off the coast of Somalia, a country believed to be a base for the Russians.
Not everyone handles the stress of a long cruise with aplomb. Near the end of this long cruise, Dana, my shipmate, reportedly dressed in civilian clothes and approached the ship's captain. We always wore our uniforms at sea - that was a requirement. The story goes that he told the captain that he worked for the CIA and that he should set a table for the two of them that evening in the captain's stateroom to discuss his undercover mission. The captain was not amused, and ordered non-judicial punishment.
A small ship is like a small town so the gossip flourished around this incident. It broke the monotony of the long cruise. I was concerned when I heard that my shipmate was receiving non-judicial punishment - punishment administered by the ship's captain without a trial. I thought that this young man, who looked about 19 years old, needed to visit with a psychologist. I urged Jerry, my friend on the ship who had a better rapport with the officers, to suggest psychological intervention. None was available on the ship so neither one of us acted - something I regret to this day.
We heard that a harsh punishment was handed down. He was sentenced to serve days in jail with bread and water as his only sustenance. Instead of psychological intervention for this obviously needy individual, the young sailor was told to be a man and to accept responsibility. Since we were still several days from our home port in Hawaii, this "criminal" was told not show up for work but to sit and think about what he had done.
When we took attendance on the morning of December 5, 1975, one person was missing. It was Dana. We searched the ship high and low, and we never found him. One can only imagine that the pressure of sitting and awaiting his jail sentence was too much to bear. Instead of visiting with his family following his long absence, he was destined for jail. Some of the crew never accepted his death and believed that he was hiding somewhere on the ship. His body was never found.
I don't know if it's true, but rumor had it that his family didn't receive his death benefit (about $10,000) because the death was ruled a suicide. I have searched for his name on the Vietnam Memorial - it's not there. In all respects, this young man should be a hero for his service during the Vietnam War and the Mayaguez incident, both of which were part of this cruise. But that's not why I wrote this diary. I wrote this diary because I'm disturbed to read in newspapers that adequate psychological care is still not available to our armed forces, an at-risk group. Many servicemen and women returning from Iraq are suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and they are not receiving adequate care. Several diaries here on DailyKos have featured this problem by
Occams Hatchet,
Ilona, and
ePluribus Media, to name a few.
In addition to general concerns about the treatment of veterans, there are several personal cases that highlight the problem. One is the example of a 16 year veteran officer http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58282-2005Mar22.html who was threatened with court martial after admitting himself to a civilian hospital for psychological treatment after being turned away by his military medical facility while "in the throes of an emotional breakdown." There is also the case of Chris Nolan, an Iowa National Guard soldier who witnessed the death of close friends in Iraq. He is suffering from PTSD, and is facing a mountain of paperwork:
Besides coping with mental health problems, Nolan is also battling the
government for disability payments. Nolan's inability to support his
family and the stress of dealing with what seems like an endless
amount of paperwork and procession of officials only compounds his
symptoms, Dickinson said.
Nolan filed a claim with the VA in October. Late last month (April), he
finally met with a VA psychiatrist who will determine whether he is
entitled to compensation. A decision is expected in June.
Suicide among soldiers has increased dramatically since the Iraq war began. And if the stress is so great for soldiers who serve limited tours in the war zone, imagine the toll that the war takes on the civilians who make Iraq their home. I had hoped that we had come a long way since my shipmate died on my birthday in 1975. Apparently we didn't learn the lessons of Vietnam and the many wars that preceded it. As I think about Dana and share his story with you on this Memorial Day, I would hope that his death would provide an impetus to consider change in our nation and our military to ensure that his death, and others like his, were not in vain.