During the Fourth of July parade in downtown Morgan Hill, as veterans, active duty personnel, and reservists marched, I was moved to see spectators along the route get up from their lawn chairs, the street curb and blankets to stand and honor them for their service and sacrifices. We owe a lot to our fighting men and women in the armed forces and their families. But beyond standing in respect during a parade, or adhering a bumper sticker to our car, or pinning a ribbon to our lapel, are we as a country doing enough in response to the soldiers’ health care needs and to ease their transition back to civilian life?
At the end of July, the special presidential commission on the care of America’s returning wounded soldiers, co-chaired by former Sen. Bob Dole and Donna Shalala, former secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, presented to the President and members of the Department of Defense and the Veterans Administration their findings and recommendations. One of the most difficult of the recommendations made by the commission is to aggressively prevent and treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is an anxiety disorder that is triggered by exposure to an event that involves a direct or indirect threat of injury or death. According to the report, 59 percent of active duty personnel and 65 percent of retired/separated service members had been exposed to such an event.
The difficulty in treating PTSD is that in the majority of cases, there is very little physical evidence something is wrong with an individual, unlike other combat injuries. To make matters worse, the stigma associated with PTSD hinders those suffering from it to seek proper help.
There are four main types of symptoms associated with PTSD: reoccurring thoughts of a traumatic event that can be manifested in flashbacks or nightmares; emotional numbing, or feeling detached with little or no interest in previously enjoyed activities; avoidance and withdrawal; hyper-alertness, with difficulty sleeping and concentrating.
The first time I ever encountered someone with post traumatic stress disorder symptoms was in the early seventies at the height of the Vietnam War. Until then, for me, war was a game. I would take my green plastic Thompson machine gun and hunt down Germans (my younger brothers) through the French countryside (fruit orchards) just like sergeant Chip Sanders as portrayed by Vic Morrow in the TV series “Combat.” War was simple. The good guys won and the bad guys lost, and that formula was constantly being reinforced in the media.
However, it was a significant day when my perception of war was greatly altered. My brother and I were riding our bikes to the store when a young man named Terry pulled over in a car to ask for directions. It didn’t take long before we learned that he had just returned home from Vietnam. For the next three hours, my brother and I saddled our bikes as he described in graphic details the horrors he experienced on the battlefield. He cried and wept as he described one event after another, and occasionally his sadness would turn to anger as he second-guessed some of the split-second decisions he had to make in the heat of combat. Throughout the conversation, he would often interject, “I can smell it, I can still smell it!” Toward the end of our encounter, he was emotionally drained, but thanked us for listening, and that is all we did because his experiences were so far outside of our reality. After he left, I wondered if I had the mental toughness to undergo those experiences and emerge sane.
Today’s servicemen and women deserve good health care, including recognition and treatment of PTSD. Bumper stickers, pins, and flags demonstrate one level of support, but these brave soldiers need much more in order to support them in their recovery and return to active military duty or back to civilian life. Family and friends are the first line of
defense when it comes to detecting and treating PTSD and the
Department of Veterans Affairs
maintains a Web site www.ncptsd.va.gov/ncmain/index.jsp with a wealth of information and links to resources. In addition to other ways you can express your support, please write to your senators and congressman, urging them to fully implement the Commissions’ recommendations to serve, support and to simplify the delivery of medical care.
Mario Banuelos has lived in Morgan Hill for 19 years. He has served on the South Valley Dayworker Committee and is a member of the Morgan Hill Community Foundation. He is married and has four children. Reach him at mb*******@ch*****.net.
