[Vision2020] Support for veterans

[Tom Hansen]

I have several friends diagnosed with various levels of PTSD, Dave.
 
PTSD is not brought on by the lies that send troops into combat.  It is brought on by the experiences these troops are forced to endure in combat.
 
Life at home here in the states consists of a wide range of parameters that define "acceptable behavior" based upon family values and public mores.  Ninety-nine percent of the time life goes on day-by-day where every action can be logically and ethically explained.  You take a 18- or 19- 20-something year old person out of that warm, fuzzy environment, give him/her a gun and, in a period of four months (even shorter now) drop him/her into an environment where those family values and public mores do not exist, and expose him/her to a most inhumane daily blood-bath routine, and expect that soldier to make sense of it all . . . and you will understand what brings on PTSD.
 
For instance . . . I have a friend who was in the Marines during Vietnam.  I met him while attending North Idaho College.  He was, what we in the Army call a "cannon cocker".  He loaded artillery shells into artillery pieces (cannons, mortars, etc.).  For almost a year his unit shelled villages in his region.  To make things worse, his unit was firing white phosphorus shells (considered illegal by the Geneva Convention).  One of the "benefits" of applying indirect fire (cannons, mortars, etc.) is that you are impersonal to the damage caused by the very cannons you fire.  Well, to make a long story short, he (my friend) and his squad were called on to recon a village they had just shelled, to apprehend any survivors as potential prisoners for interrogation.  What he witnessed, as his squad reconned the village that day (and for several subsequent patrols over the next few weeks) turned a very outgoing, friendly, open-hearted person into somebody difficult to define or describe.  He had been put on medication since his discharge in 1969.  He's been married twice, divorced twice, and attempted suicide once.  He is currently a patient at American Lakes Veteran Hospital, a hospital whose budget is only a few dollars more than mine.
 
So, you see, Dave.  It isn't as much a matter of keeping the troops informed as to why they are going into combat as much as it is providing therapy and care to return them back to that neighborhood they left behind.
 
Pro patria,
 
Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho



> Date: Fri, 15 Feb 2008 13:28:29 -0800> From: tiedye at turbonet.com> To: vision2020 at moscow.com> Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Support for veterans> > "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."> > To prevent our troops from getting PTSD we have to train our kids not to > believe the lies and then go overseas and kill people, it drives you insane!> > Did you know that more Vietnam vets have committed suicide then died in > the war?> > My kids have clear instructions should they institute the draft while > they are of age: run north, run south, run underground, or do the time, > but don't kill people.> > And remember that following an un-lawful order is an un-lawful act. > > Military recruiters are committing an un-lawful act by encouraging our > kids to follow the un-lawful orders to ship out and fight an illegal > war. We should stop these people from committing such war crimes.> > Dave
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