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Feedback ForumNOW wants to hear from you! Send us your opinions, reactions and ideas about "Fighting the Army"Submissions for this question are no longer being accepted. Previously submitted comments appear below. Comments may have been edited for content or space. Poster: SGT Chuck Luther Comment: My name is Chuck Luther and I am one of the soldiers that was featured on the NOW piece titled Fighting The Army and I will help anyone that needs it to get to the right people to stop this. Evester Sutton, please get in touch with me so I can try to help your son at FT Hood. My email is : chuckluther@clearwire.net ( PBS staff you have my permission to post my email address) Poster: David Chavarria Comment: I am one of the soldiers that was interviewed for this story. I am going on an extreme limb here. I am willing to share my knowledge with anyone that would like help dealing with this situation....(to NOW staff I am giving you permission to put my email address up) This is my email address... josechavarria2000@yahoo.com Sincerely David Chavarria Poster: john kinchla Comment: Recently I concluded a letter to the Department of the Army by telling them they were fainthearted and corrupt. And they are. But the question that remains to be asked is why? I can only conclude one logical reason and that is a lack of selfless courage at the top. US Joint Chief General George C Casey was my high school classmate at BC High in Dorchester MA. Recently when I appealed to General Casey through Secretary of the Army Peter Geren's office I received no response. That doesn't suprise me. Courage is when you are faced with a problem where you have a choice either to resolve and act on a problem or walk away from it. Courage is when you exercise your choice and act to do the right thing and the consequences be damned. George, I'm still waiting for you to do the right thing. But this problem takes more than courage. It takes the ability to turn away the lobbyists and those people that want us to remain in Iraq. It takesthe courage to tell the defense and government contractors that we are holding them to higher standards. According to www.fcw.com, every dollar paid by American taxpayers up to $100,000 in income goes directly to government contractors such as SAIC, Lockheed Martin , Boeing, Raytheon etc. What exactly do they do to earn that money? Why then was I sexually harassed, stalked, libeled and retaliated by executives at SAIC when I reported two pornographic screensavers on the government workstations at Ft Sam Houston and reported a hostile work environment where people were routinely degraded and abused with comments about their sexuality, where posters were displayed and employees were said to be homosexuals or lesbians? Why then when I reported this to SAIC was I singled out as the problem and fired? Why then when I reported this to the Department of the Army did they respond that this was out of their jurisdiction. Why then when I reported this to the Department of Labor EEOC did they fail to call any of my witnesses when the EEOC had 6 MONTHS to investigate? The answer is COURAGE. Courage is when you have a CHOICE to do the right thing and you do it. I'm tired of listening to excuses from the people we believe are in their jobs because they possess the moral leadership. As we have seen with President George W Bush, we have men in this country who have never been tested and they are confused about courage. I would recoomend that those men look at the PFC, the Lance Corporal, the SFC, the First Lieutenant and all those young men and women that have volunteered to serve our country post 9/11. If you want to witness courage they are the people to be emulated. God bless Melvin German and every young man and woman in service to our country, you deserve far better leadership than you have now. I pray that each of you return and then actively participate in leading this country in the right and courageous direction and help us win back the rights, liberties and freedoms that we all cherish in common regardless and possibly despite the fainthearted and corrupt leaders steering us the wrong way. Poster: Marlene Poehlman Comment: This situation is also happening to my son at this very time. He has returned from Iraq and is suffering from PTSD and is having a very difficult time with the Army. They are trying to put him out and my son is trying not to get put out. No one seems to really care about him as a soldier and as a person. Since he cannot deploy again he is no use to the Army anymore. He has had problems with his superiors who have punished him and given him extra duty in spite of the fact that they know of his problems. he served his country well in Iraq. He was blown up, shot at and was put in harms way countless times as a saw gunner. He had friends die or were seriously injured and he continued to fight non. All he is asking for is the Army to recognize that he needs a little help to get straightened out. He has volunteered to go back several times because he wants to return with his buddies but can not. I of course can not nothing to help him as far as the Army is concerned. They finally called to tell me he had problems after he had more than one incident that did not seem normal to them. I just want what is best for my son. I thought the worse was over while he was deployed. I told him to fight on for his rights and care and benefits that the Army should provide to him. Poster: cmoon Comment: When are people going to realize that our government chews them up and when it can no longer get what it wants from them, it spits them out - whether they be ally or soldier (US citizen). I don't think these soldiers are falling through the cracks; I think they are being stuffed through the cracks. This is not going to stop until people stop it, until they say, If this is the way you're going to treat us when we get out, we're not going in. It's time for Hell No, We Won't Go! If you're not going to take care of the people you send to war, you'd better not start a war. This war was waged illegally & our soldiers are being treated immorally. Shame on the United States. Poster: john king Comment: I am a Vietnam Veteran. Me and thousands like me were kicked out of the army after returning from Vietnam. No one spoke up for us. We were branded as outcasts, misfits and murderers. Thousands became addicted to cheap heroin that flooded into Vietnam aided by our own CIA. A generation was lost. These guys are now in their late 50's and 60's. I am now a 100% disabled veteran. Because of the way the army treated me I have a life long disability that has cost me dearly. Now it will cost the taxpayers for the rest of my life. The Greatest Generation sent me to Vietnam and their grandchildren will be paying for my care. We are forgotten. I was 19 years old when I arrived in Vietnam. Thanks for nothing. Anyone who enlists in the military is a fool. Forget about Iraq. There are 2.5 million Vietnam vets who exposed to agent orange. No one cares at all about us except the undertakers at the VA. Poster: Michelle H. Comment: The Army is doing this same disgusting crap to basic training enlistees. My bright and beauiful 18 yr. old daughter, who took ROTC for 4 years in high school, signed up for the Army and was shipped to Ft. Jackson S. Carolina on March 5,2008. Three days aftr she arives, the military finds out her hemoglobin level in her blood indicates pregnancy--However she is NOT pregnant. So they give her 3 vaginal ultrasounds (those are quite painful) and draw her blood 13 times--and find out she's not pregnant--they don't know what's wrong with her. They scheldule her for a CAT scan, then abruptly cancel it and finally kick her out for misconduct(!) and pregnancy--when every piece of paperwork they gave her, CLEARLY shows that she is NOT pregnant. The arrogance of the military astounds me too. Not only do they bogusly kick you out, they then provide you with all the paperwork that contradicts the discharge you are given. WTF?? They tell her that she can be seen at the VA when she gets home--I take her to the VA and is told (quite rudely) that since she doesn't have 2 yrs While at Fort Jackson they treated her like garbage, like this was somehow her fault,--complete trash, Now, how she ever got past MEPS(MEPS for those of you who don't know, is where the future soldiers are supposedly given a physical and screened to deem if they're fit for the military) they drew her blood before she left for Basic, since she's female, they drew blood and checked her for pregnancy. Now, get this, her roomate at MEPS (You stay overnight) was told she didn't qualfy for the ARMY because she was PREGNANT after they did her blood test. Yet my daughter's blood was okay?? I have surmised they're so desperate for soliders that MEPS and the recruiters are just pushing them thru in order to get the numbers, and once they're at basic training and these conditions appear--they kick them out. While she was down there she tells me there were people with asthma, arthritis, and other conditions that I know they screen at MEPS before these future soliders are shipped out, who were waiting to be discharged, and treated like garbage--as if this is there fault. They're so screwed up, I hate the military for this reason and after watching this program about the PTSD soldiers, my disgust is warranted. They are cruel and they have no idea the added trauma they cause by their shameful and disgusting treatment of their soldiers and wanna-be soldiers. And no one can tell me that these recruiters are not doing this in order to get the numbers, I wouldn't be surprised if the Pentagon was telling them to do this. Shameful. Poster: L.T. Comment: Thank you, thank you, thank you for the coverage. My husband served over 19 years and was treated the same way. The wife's job is the hardest. We get back broken men and no resources or benefits. I can't thank you enough for covering this topic and listing resources. Poster: Ian Kerr Comment: It struck me that, according to the NOW report, the highest-ranking psychiatrist in the Army is a Colonel. By comparison... the Surgeon General of the Army is a Lieutenant General... a 3-star General... 3 pay grades above its chief mental health officer. I'm not a veteran, but both my parents are... so I have reason to be under the impression that the military doesn't consider a task very important unless one or more stars is on the shoulder of the person in charge of it. If that's the case... it's a terrible, preventable shame. Poster: Dorah Rosen Comment: To R. Ayotte, thanks for sharing the story of your nephew, whom I hope will be given good medical treatment so that he can recover. Different congressional offices are helpful to different degrees- the information given to your congressman's aide is correct- medical discharge takes longer but that is because the person is evaluated and given a rating as well as a medical discharge with conditions that may include financial help, training, etc. Therefore, it can be well worth it to pursue a medical discharge even though it takes longer. This is the type of situation where a congressman's intervention may be very helpful! Trained counselors at the GI Rights Hotline, a volunteer based non profit that doesn't charge for its services, can help your family- 877.447.4487. Poster: Dorah Rosen Comment: I wanted to let readers know about the GI Rights Hotline, a network of trained volunteers nationwide, who give information to active military personnel and their families, we also do a little work with recent veterans. The website is girightshotline.org and the toll free number is 877.447.4487. The hotline is non governmental and we do not report to any agencies, military, law enforcement or government offices or staff. Poster: T Swell Comment: When we talk about the cost of the War, do we include decades of care & living expenses for damaged veterans, their children & spouses? Do we include the secret CIA budget? Do we include the FOB contractors with 'cost plus' spending accounts? Do we include the cost of hiding and uncovering the lies from the White House? With elections on the horizon and the economy in shambles we need to consider the real cost of the war, as well as the opportunity cost to our own poor, homeless, uninsured, and jobless in the USA. How many hungry Americans could be fed and sheltered with the money spent in one day on the war? Poster: john king Comment: I was kicked out of the Army when I got back from Vietnam in 1971. What is happening now is nothing new. Me and thousands of other Vietnam vets were plopped down into the Golden Triangle. It was the heroin capital of the world. When any of us tried the drug and got hooked we were then kicked out of the Army on bad conduct discharges. Also, PTSD was not even recognized as a disease. Unless a soldier was suffering from acute combat fatigue you got kicked out for being unfit. I know people who were addicted in Vietnam and 38 years later are still drug addicts. They get nothing from the VA. 2.5 million of us were exposed to agent orange. I have diabetes due to agent orange. I got an honorable discharge because I fought what they did to me, and I am still fighting. I was told that my duty in Vietnam was just routine. I went to sleep every night with gunshots in my ears. I listened to 155 howitzers doing fire missions all night. That is just rountine duty to sit on the perimeter with an M60 machinegun pointing out at a free fire zone. We shot at anything that moved but this was just routine. Poster: Mr. J.G. ULMER Comment: This was a very disappointing and stunted portrayal of the Army and the military's medical personnel in particular, not in that it indicated some well known systemic problems for soldier care, but in that NOW offered a biased (surprise) and basically one-sided review -- in less than an hour -- of some very complicated subject matter that pure emotion alone can not answer. The professional leadership in the DOD is beyond aware of the combat and family stresses being placed on our brave and selfless troops; that does not negate the need to make tough command decisions, for the best immediate daily functioning of battlefield units -- decisions which at times do not meet the individual expectations of some weary soldiers, and certainly not the families that must always worry about their loved ones in harm's way. The leadership and medical care provided for America's armed forces is not always perfect, but continues to improve (markedly so, since even early in Iraq) -- but it is not the blatant conspiracy against the few individuals unable to realistically cope and adjust, even with the horrors of war, that you wrongly and weakly suggest in your recent NOW hit piece, that only seeks to degrade the Army and with very little background for making such a public move against the troops, people that make your right to prattle thinly so easily available. A very shrill and very forgettable effort, that does not honor the troops you allegedly seek to make whole through myopic media attention. Poster: Tom Comment: What Americans should push for is encouraging people to believe they have no right or duty to kill for their government. End the endless cycle of war and violence. The pioneers of a warless world are the men and women who refuse military service. Albert Einstein Poster: Tom Comment: The pioneers of a warless world are the men and women who refuse military service. Killing under the cloak of war is murder. Albert Einstein Poster: Warren L. Henthorn Comment: I am Warren L. Henthorn, father of lost soldier, Jeffrey S. Henthorn, in Iraq, by self inflicted wound, 8 Feb 05. His chain of command know he had problems and did nothing to get him help. His case is now under investigation at the Inspector Generals office at Ft. Riley, KS. I do not hold my breath, that as far as I tell, they do not care, all lip service. I have studied these cases of mental and physical neglete and have come to the conclusion that the cause is the Feres Doctrine, a 1950 Supreme Court decision that protects the Army from suits. Read Johnathan Turley's story, What Soldiers need is a Lawyer. This doctrine is the root cause of the neglete in the Reed Hospital and others including the VA system This Doctrine has been in the congress to be overturned, and even back to the Supreme Court. Untill this doctrine is overturned, our troops will be mistreated. I am a vet, 1967-71 and I can say that we were treated better by the military than what is happening now. My son's story was told by your station by A.I.R. in Oct 06. Thank you for your work for the troops. Sincerely Warren L. Henthorn Choctaw, OK Poster: Richard Pierce Comment: Since November this year I have been trying to help Jonathan Norrell get the help he needs from the Army. While in Iraq, Norrell was assigned to a scouting patrol as their medic. It's one of the most dangereous jobs in Iraq. One the day Maria Hinajosa's piece was shown Jonathan and I spoke with each other several times. He trusted Maria completely to tell his story. Only Maria has seen his diaries and he gave a copy of them to her in hopes that other soldiers would see they aren't alone. The problems he faces day to day include not being able to concentrate, an inability to complete simple tasks [right now his paycheck hasn't been deposited even though he is broke], and a hypersensitivity to loud noises, crowds of people, and on-coming traffic. I want to thank Maria Hinahosa for her work and her help. Jonathan needs it, deserves it, and has earned it. Poster: Ghosts of Boorda Comment: Thanks for the report. It is a good start. The majority American public is clueless on this issue, but for those familess who are living through it ... it is catastrophic. I urge anyone who watches this report to please send the link to all our friends and family. Americans must be exposed to this issue. If there was awareness of this issue on the same scale of awareness of the latest American Idol, this issue would move up significantly in our social priorities ... the outrage would overwhelm Congress,DoD and VA. The problem is we are a nation distracted by prosperity and entertainment. Here are the two key questions/issues I am waiting for our mostly timid American journalists to report out ... ??? Since 2003, how many service members who have screened positive for a mental health injury or TBI (or who were under the care of a mental health provider at the time) have been discharged via administrative separation for personality disorder and/or misconduct; courts martial; or some other method? What are the true numbers ??? ??? How many DoD psychiatrists and psychologists (both military and civilian) have atritted (chose to leave) since 2003? How many DoD psychiatrists and psychologists (both military and civilian) have been accessed (hired) since 2003? Has there been a net increase or a decrease? And at military bases, has there been a net increase or decrease? As more psychiatrists and psychologists are deployed away from their home bases, are they being replaced? At military installations, there is a crisis. The problem is that as psychiatrists and psychologists deploy to Iraq and Afghanistan (and other locations around the world), there is a significant decrease in providers available to treat servicemembers and their familes left behind at home bases. The result is this ... since deployments cause a provider gap at the bases, serviemembers do not have adequate mental health care access because there are not enough psychiatrists and psychologists left behind to provided services. Furthermore, service members' psychiatric problems more often manifest when a servicemember returns home post deployment. So, how many psychiatrists and psychologists billets at home military bases have gone unfilled as the result of deployments? And lastly, how many additional active duty (not temporary or contracted civilians) psychiatrist and psychologist billets are there today, compared to to active duty psychiatrist and psychologist billets in 2003? How many active duty psychiatrist and psychologist permanent billet increases have ocurred in each branch? ??? I applaud this report as far as it goes, but I am sad that the majority of corporate/agenda-controlled media organizations have failed to aggressively investigate this issue and its impact on the military members both current and former, and their families. More than 1000 veterans attempt sucicide EVERY MONTH!!! And those are just the numbers from vets in the VA system. How many more are there killing themselves each month who are not in VA system? The issue of our government leaders' failure to mandate DoD to recognize, prevent and treat mental health injuries/TBI is an issue of both NATIONAL SECURITY and NATIONAL DISGRACE. It is my belief that the failure of American media organizations to FULLY/AGGRESSIVELY investigate and report these issues to the American public is unconscionable. Poster: Darla Shelden Comment: We need to have the Feres Doctrine repealed. Soldiers and families have little or no recourse with it in place. To learn more about Feres read the following article by Jonathan Turley. http://jonathanturley.org/2007/08/18/the-feres-doctrine-what-soldiers-really-need-are-lawyers/ Poster: Peggy Roden Comment: This is happening to my son at this very moment. He passed out twice while on mission in Baghdad last month. He went to 2 medical units and was diagnosed with a Delayed QT which could have caused a heart attack. During his PT training he passed out again. They flew him to Germany where he was taken of all his medications and treated as an out patient. The doctor there diagnosed him with PTSD and TBI and was transferring him to Walter Reed. The day before he left Germany he passed out in his room and was out about 4 hours. The next day a new doctor released him and said he was changing his diagnosis to “Panic Disorder” or “Personality Disorder”. My son said he heard something about a “quota”. Because he was in PT when he passed out he had nothing with him except his PT clothing, military ID and Dog Tags. They flew him from Germany back to Fort Carson and sent him to Rear Detachment who basically put him in a barrack and ignored him. He was supposed to go to Evan Hospital for evaluation. Anytime he asked a senior officer about when he was to see the doctors he was pretty much blown off. He finally took himself to Evans Emergency. They said they couldn’t admit him but that he did need to be monitored and evaluated so they sent him to Cedar Springs. He and several other soldiers were there and all of them in the same situation. They have tried several times to get them to accept an “other discharge” without any benefits. At least there he was put back on his blood pressure medication and being monitored. A week ago he went to Evans for an appointment and was sent to another civilian hospital where I was unable to talk with him. I finally called the RD Commander and insisted someone find out where he was. She told me her paperwork showed he was at Evans!!! She said she would send someone over to Evans to check on him. Of course, they didn’t find him. She was told he was taken to Lighthouse. Lighthouse would not deny or confirm whether or not he was there. If you call they won’t let you speak with him. I also wanted her to tell me why no one had made any efforts in weeks to have his personal items sent to him. He has no money, debit card, cell phone, nothing. She said she would look into it. I called the Commander again yesterday to see if there was any progress. When she called me back she said he was being released and going to Evans. She said he had an appointment with a neurologist on the 17th. Yesterday, my son finally was able to call me and told me he was going to Evans later that afternoon. He and several other soldiers are trying to hang tough but they are trying to get all of them to accept a discharge without benefits. I called Evans today and they have no record of him being there. I feel completely helpless and I am sure my son does too. When he was in Germany he told me he just wanted to get back to his troop in Iraq because no one there (Germany) cared about him. I have always been a strong supporter of the military but now I feel they have abused my son. I am afraid to do anything because I don’t want to make his situation worse. At the same time I want to be proactive. It an awful situation, just awful. Poster: Judy Pancoast Comment: Is it possible that you could start a forum so viewers could send messages to David in India? Thanks, Judy Pancoast mamanook@comcast.net Poster: ' Comment: ' Poster: Ina G. Zeemering Comment: Hi. We run a small equine assisted psychotherapy program here in Howell Michigan. The Zeemering Foundation is a 501(c)(3) that does therapy with horses, and I have personally been interested in sharing this powerful work with returning Veterans (who are really getting the short stick with almost everything). There should be some need here in Southeast Michigan, but I do not know where to start contacting folks. Can you help? Poster: lfitterer Comment: last night i watched your program about fighting the army and i was quite upset about what the army is doing to these young men. It reminds me of how the soldiers of the viet nam war were treated. Then, as now, it is shameful how the soldiers are cast out like so much gargage. I am so glad you had the courage to bring it to public attention. It needs to be changed. Poster: katlynn petty Comment: as the mother of a young soldier, fighting in iraq, i feel this is a shame on not only our soldiers but our goverment,,we have a all volenteer army , serving this country in a war, i repeat ((( war ))) so , how can anyone say what thay see and feel and live in this land so far away from the world thay left behinde, dosnt affect them?? i and a group of my fellow soldiers suporters, spend hours of time talking to thease very same soldiers online, we send them care boxes, letters and emails, daily, and have for years now, i hear the stories, i cry with them, i am not only the mother of a 18 year old army soldier but a soldiers angle, i have soent the last 4 years careing for the many adopted soldiers i have had the honer to serve!!i have spent thousands of my own dollers, to have the honer to do this, so why cant the very army and u.s.a. at least do the same,,,,care for them, understand,show compation!!, freedom isnt free, and when we ask, boys!! yes i mean boys, to rise to the call, and fight, we must be responcable for the outcome, p.t.s.d. is a very real thing, you take the normal person and show them one forth of what our sons see in this war, and thay would be affected,,,, yet alone ask them to live it, with the treat that if you dare show or ask for any help, or react at all to the carnage of war, then we will punish you, take away pay, rank and money!! do we want soldiers to keep quite and hold it all in??that is whats going on!! we are at a all time low on our recruting,,( wounder why!), soo we are sending them back over and over again,,dont ask dont tell,,,,,is this the slogen for the ones who need help??well,,,,i am not going to let this go, i am going to do anything and everything i can to network with every wife and every mother and every decent american i can, to stop the mistreatment of our soldier by the army!!!!! i have a son, who is only 18 years old, in this war, as a mother and as a soldiers angle i wont quit , and any red blooded american should be outraged at this !! i know i am,,,,,shame on you army, shame on you vetrans affairs,,,,,,watch out for the soldiers mamas,!! we are watching we are grouping up!!!!do the right thing!!and to my soldiers,,,,that alaska solders mom, is got all the info, ill be here for you! i will network with all the other soldiers moms, and we will do everything we can, to show the goverment just how badly thay are screwing up this time,,,,and goverment,,be afaraid,,,be very afaraid! Poster: Ardith Comment: As someone who has experienced post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), I choked up while watching your report last night. Thank you for exposing the fact that while we so easily can ship off our young men and women to fight in Iraq and in Afghanistan, we balk at caring for their broken brain wounds that result while they are there. So after developing PTSD for what they have experienced while serving our country, we then batter them some more and deny them military medical benefits -- and eject them from the military with penalties to pay and no health care for life? This is APPALLING. This should not be happening -- this complete and wretched abrogation of our sacred duty to our soldiers and their families. As someone whose ancestors fought in the Revolutionary War onward for this nation, I feel very strongly about what we owe our soldiers. I know it must be very hard for anyone to know what it's like to suffer PTSD if they haven't, but I will tell you that not even my intelligent immediate family knew what to do to help me get through the worst of it. I have PTSD episodes today, 14 years after the traumatic events, although yes, one does heal, but one is also scarred for the rest of one's life. I had no idea in the immediate aftermath of the events that traumatized me that the flashbacks, anger and depression I suffered then were all part of PTSD, and it's very hard for the individual sufferer to know, obviously, because his or her brain is shot to hell by the traumatic experiences. I had an English undergraduate degree and an international MBA -- not a degree in neuroscience -- and even had I had a degree in brain science, my brain wasn't functioning. Not only is the PTSD sufferer's brain shot to hell, but also his or her adrenals, thyroid, hypothalamic pituitary axis, blood sugar (hypoglycemia is generally the main PTSD state), and much more, shot to hell. Traumatic experiences and major life stress gobble up all the nutrients we need to fuel our brains and bodies, leaving us in major deficit. Nothing that used to work before the traumatic experience, works. I often think that if soldiers had complete physiological tests (amino acid analysis, blood; elemental analysis, hair, blood & urine; comprehensive vitamin profile, blood; fatty acid analysis, blood; allergy profile, blood; comprehensive digestive analysis, stool, blood glucose analysis, and more) when they begin to develop PTSD, or even after any traumatic event they experience -- to reveal exactly where their levels of neurotransmitters and neurohormones lie, what their levels of vitamins and minerals are, whether they are hypoglycemic, etc., we will begin to be able to jumpstart their recoveries. For the reliance on synthetic antidepressants is scary -- although that is the path I trod as well, at first, because I did not know any better. Once I began to revive my brain, I tapered off synthetic antidepressants, tried St. John's Wort which helped my brain even more to blossom again, then switched to amino acids, the creators of neurotransmitters in the first place. See Dr. Priscilla Slagle's website, www.thewayup.com for more information, but the two amino acids that are key are tryptophan (as 5-HTP, or now, as tryptophan as it is again available over the counter) and tyrosine. I also loaded up on vitamins, minerals, cholines, and omega 3 fatty acids -- all to rebuild my battered brain and body systems. We must help our soldiers before they know they need help, for their brains and entirely body systems are too worn down to enable them to find that crucial medical help themselves. I had no training in neuroscience, but in the years of my recovery, as my brain healed, I was able to teach myself what I needed to know to heal. That said, I languished for years when I should not have. I nearly lost my life in the aftermath of the trauma as well. I see the same pattern in returning soldiers, and we must turn this around fast. What we must also remember is that traumatic experiences leave us with a lower functioning neurotransmitter baseline, which will stay at that lower malfunctioning level unless it is elevated by the use of amino acids (tryptophan and tyrosine), multivitamin minerals (a good multivitamin mineral, B complex and vitamin C), Omega 3 fatty acids, and similar brain building nutrients. All that the synthetic antidepressants do is to keep the neurotransmitters one is making in between neurons (the synapses, or space between brain cells) available for neurotransmission -- brain communication. But what if you are no longer making as many of the neurotransmitters as you were able to before the traumatic experiences? What if the stresses you underwent robbed you of all the building blocks (amino acids, multivitamins, minerals, etc.) that our brains need to function optimally? ALL AMERICANS MUST PUSH FOR NOTHING LESS THAN THE ABSOLUTE BEST HEALTH CARE FOR OUR RETURNING SOLDIERS, AND ALSO FOR OUR SOLDIERS IN THE FIELD. ANYTHING LESS IS TRULY UN-AMERICAN, AND MOREOVER, INHUMAN. Poster: Kyle Christensen Comment: I'd like to see what people said earlier---I'm a social worker, married to a vet w/PTSD, diagnosed as PD--from Vietnam! Poster: R. Ayotte Comment: My nephew is in the Army stationed at Fort Campbell in KY. He was getting ready to deploy to Iraq for the second time when he became ill. He has now been diagnose with MS & Lyme disease. The ARMY does not want to give him a medical discharge even though he can no longer walk without assistance and has blurred vision . His Mother went to their congress men to ask for help. When the Congress men contacted the Army my nephew was told this could further delay his discharge. I saw your segment on TV and thought maybe I could find something to help him. Poster: Kenrick Hackett Comment: I work as a prison mental health social worker. The attitudes of many medical personnel in prison are very similar to the attitude expressed about ptsd victims expressed in documents noted in your piece: that complaints are bogus; they are malingering. The term personality disorder suggests that the diagnoser is being pressured by his or her superiors, since the nonspecific personality disorder is a provisional diagnosis. It is not a coincidence that this also seems to be the attitude of corporate administrations for workers who have medical or psychological problem: there is a deeply ingrained culture of mistrust on the part of administrators and bureaucratic personnel for line workers, line soldiers, line staff, inmates. The question is why? The reason, I think, is fairly straightforward: the corporatisation of American institutions, which is directly linked to the commodification of the American people. An argument can be made that this cuts across both private and public institutions, and it all comes down to money and the need to save money. But it also relates to an institutional culture that accounts the worth of men and women in terms of money rather than character. We are a nation in decline, sadly, and this is the core of the problem. Poster: Josh Comment: I think this is horrible. This all started with the implication of the UCMJ. Think about it, as Americans we have never lost a war. We held ourselves and each other to higher standards, but now documents and legislations are supposed to keep us to those standards. That leaves good people that signed up to defend their country, out in a hard civilian job market with a paper that says Other Than Honorable discharge from the military. The system is messed up and it will never get fixed because the ones in charge never have to go through this themselves. I know this is true because it happened to me. I was booted out of the Marines, for petty underage drinking charges, and now I'm sitting around with no chance of getting a job. I don't believe my situation will get any better, but is nice to see the people at PBS are at least trying to shed some light on the situation. Poster: evester sutton Comment: thank god some one is talkin about, this my son is in forthood,tx and has tryed killn himself 2weeks ago, what our kids and ot her are going threw is no joke,in is going threw a lot to be so young,his wife had 2 miss carriages, and he did not get the time needed for greavance. he was an e4, but is now an e1,with less pay. Now being a single mom i've prayed and prayed for our world as a whole, it doesn't matter if i know u are not,we are all equal.when my son called to tell me he was out the hospital, i was glad for him,then he began to tell me he wanted out the army, one of the staff sargents started makin jokes while he was in formation,about sueaside,he said next time use drain-o it works faster. Now i would never want a child of mine are any one else to have to hear words like these coming from a staff person.I cryed as soon as i heard this, was even mader when my friends told me thats how they the arm theats the kids well, thats not excepital at all, im written this because i do need help,my son is also bein discharged next mo.with out pay he been to iraq also. Poster: Virginia Sullivan Finn Comment: Thank you. For eight years I have been working on a memoir related to this topic. The effect on my family of my father's dishonorable discharge during World War II for ??? I was never told because it was so shameful but I believe it was for alcoholism. He was 51 years old. Right now I'm searching for a publisher. That light and honesty is finally being shown on and revealed, with NOW, helping in this endeavor seems like a miracle. But this is not a new problem what is new is the courage to challenge the authoritarian structure of the institutionalized military. My book is called FEASTING ON FOXGLOVES for the hidden poison that lies within patriotism made an absolutism. My gratitude for your program tonight. Poster: Thomas O'Brien Comment: Is it possible to send George Bush and Dick Cheney to the front? The way this administration is treating its military is criminal. |
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