PTSD: it has Destroyed the Armed Forces

One atrocity after another. Even battle chaplains get PTSD.

Some military chaplains do ultimately deal with PTSD because they go into difficult and dangerous locations to minister to troops. A chaplain was on this particular convoy in the Pesh Valley of Afghanistan. Salem-News.com photo by Tim King

(MOLALLA, Ore.) - Don't question me yet, but take a read about it. The TV says that 9.2 percent of returning veterans can't find work. (Atrocity #1) But it also says that for veterans 20 and under, 20% of them cannot find work (atrocity #2). The TV says veterans learn marketable skills in the service (atrocity #3).

As a WWII frontline Army Infantry Point Man, Scout and Forward Observer, I take strong exception to most, if not all of the statements of the first paragraph. I was a newly college graduated poison chemist when I volunteered and assumed they could use a bright young poison chemist. Not a chance... they needed frontline combat infantry first (atrocity #4).

If a frontline dogface infantryman got 'battle fatigue' or 'shell shock', most misnamed, he 'might be' sent back to an aid station for a triple dose of a sleeping pill, a shower and a clean uniform, and sent back to the front lines (atrocity #5). To send a battle exhausted soldier back to the front lines was bad enough, but it gets worse.

The Army and Marine philosophy seemed to be like getting thrown from a horse, to get back back up and get on the horse.

Being shot at has no comparison.

Returning to the front and his surviving comrades, he is greeted with, "How was your vacation?" and "How were the nurses?" (atrocity #6), (Those gals were off limits to enlisted men who did almost all of the killing, fighting and dying - 70%).

U.S. soldiers in Iraq. Salem-News.com photo by Tim King

Getting out of the mud and blood of combat, 'back home' usually brought a punitive barrage of questions. "Did you kill any enemy?" and "Did you get any medals?" Purple hearts don't count unless you get an arm or leg shot off.

Most returning battle veterans get to the VA hospitals or clinics to be met by "Just because you were overseas playing cowboys and Indians, do you want drugs? (atrocity #7). Even so, veterans are given some combination of morphine like drugs, anti-depressant stupefying drugs, or even epilepsy drugs, none of which helped, and made the vets know they weren't getting appropriate care (atrocity #8).

The vets turn to alcohol, tobacco and illegal drugs, which they knew from past experience worked, even though counterproductive (atrocity #9).

The VA Hospital system, especially Walter Reed, has been a disaster almost from the beginning - that is a known fact. It came to a screeching focus a few years ago and they finally decided to tear the hospital down... and not soon enough. It has been said by many people that the VA Hospital system is broke, I won't repeat it here (atrocity #10).

Even after surviving bad VA care, combat veterans are confronted with a high unemployment rate. We protected the butts of the employers and their businesses, now we may be somehow untrainable or otherwise unacceptable employees. I don't get it! Before we went into the armed services, we had to be trained for the most strenuous, most difficult, most dangerous jobs of all, and now we are somehow untrainable (atrocity #11).

I checked the Internet for this information, two of the better sources were Military Tradition- History of Veterans Abused and Discarded, here are some excerpts from this article.

The article references how after WWI, a reporter wrote of the Veterans Bureau:

“

It has probably made wrecks of more men since the war, than the war itself took in dead and maimed.

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These are excerpts from the story:

“

Americans were dismayed to learn that soldiers wounded in Afghanistan and Iraq, fallen heroes, were being warehoused in building 18, a roach and rat infested satellite of the Army's Walter Reed Medical Center.

”

“

On November 3 2010, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki convened a first ever Homeless Veterans Summit in Washington D.C., during which he unveiled an ambitious plan to establish new programs and enhancing existing ones. with the goal of ending homelessness among veterans over the next five years. With 60,000 home vouchers for some 300,000 homeless vets.

”

These quotes are from comments left on the article by readers:

“

It is a blasted shame that a soldier who gave his best or his life gets a paltry retirement while politicians in D.C., after one year, will get a long pension, up to $15k a month. Put a gun in their hands and plop them in a foxhole or a burned out building for an hour and see if they make it. The death benefits for soldiers are a joke too. Six thousand dollars and eight hundred a month until remarried and the kids get a couple of hundred each until 18.

”

“

Maybe Veterans are not fighting for this country, but are just fighting for rich people who would never serve in the military.

”

“

It is apparent that the VA Hospitals are actually turning away those most in need, it is utterly disgusting. The VA Medical system is a horror show run mostly by lazy, self-important, arrogant and self-satisfied buerocrats. This ill treatment has been going on for years and years and years. VA Hospitals are in a hopeless situation.

”

This quote was also a comment on the article:

“

If the VA can save money by withholding needed treatment from a veteran, that means bigger bonuses in their pocket. I can remember a CNN correspondent being so amazed when she learned that this actually happens. In 2007 and 2008, millions of dollars in awards were issued for high level employees received anywhere between 60k and 73k for withholding treatment.

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This quote is from a book by a VA chaplain:

“

I have 3,100 pages about veterans being murdered in VA Hospitals; wrong meds, failure for proper care, etc.

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Background on Veterans

Do something:

• 23% of the homeless are vets (500k-800k).
• 47% are Vietnam Vets with more coming.
• 76% use alcohol or drugs.
• 50% have PTSD.
• 50% of these have been jailed.
• 140k 'Nam Vets have been in prison.
• 30% of Iraq Vets will have PTSD (that is about 600k vet).
• Less than 40% of Vets are being treated.
• Over 40k Vets were treated for drug abuse.
• Army suicide rate is the highest in history.

No army can function with these casualties (Atrocity #12)

Got a question or comment for Dr. Leveque?
Email him: Newsroom@Salem-News.com

More information on the history of Dr. Leveque can be found in his book, General Patton's Dogface Soldier of WWII about his own experiences "from a foxhole".
Order the book by mail by following this link: Dogface Soldier

If you are a World War II history buff, you don't want to miss it.

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COLLI November 15, 2011 6:18 am (Pacific time)

From a politician's perspective, it is all about appearance Dr. Leveque. They are only too happy to strut up and down in front of a TV camera and expound upon "How we need to do more for our veterans" but when the rubber meets the road, they are too busy with other things . . . things like cutting the COLA for Social Security recipients while voting themselves a huge salary increase. These elected officials could not care less about veterans or their families. To hear them talk, butter would not melt in their mouth but just watch their actions to find out why . . . they are too cold for butter to melt. It almost appears that liquid nitrogen runs in their veins rather than blood. Find replacements for these vermin from among the parents who will never get to hug their child again because of a war these politicians put them into and we may get to see fair treatment of our veterans. In the meantime, limit all politicians to two terms . . . the first term in office and the second in prison!

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