Wounded Warriors
Laurie Ott, Executive Director
CSRA Wounded Warrior Care Project
Augusta, Georgia
Media
reports about the war in Iraq and Afghanistan have been punctuated with news of
suicides among both active-duty personnel and veterans. CBS News stated
that based on death records from 45 states (requests for records were denied by
5 states) 120 military personnel committed suicide each and every
week in the year 2005. Today’s home front suicide tally is running at
least double the number of troop suicides in the war zones as thousands of men
and women return with disabling injuries and mental health disorders that put
them at higher risk. According to the Biostatistics Department of the
University of Georgia, veterans aged 20-24 who see combat in Iraq and
Afghanistan are four times more likely to commit suicide than non-vets.
And the most recent twist in these alarming statistics is the number of
veterans who are now committing cop-assisted suicide.
One
young serviceman was so haunted by guilt over surviving an explosion that
killed two close friends that after his return home, he took his own
life. Describing the incident on a homemade video, Sgt. Jacob Blaylock
said it sent shockwaves through his soul (New
York Times). Behind the pain of Jackie Blaylock and other returning
veterans is a complex and interlocking set of issues and challenges that were
set in motion on September 11, 2001.
Roughly
1.7 million troops have been deployed in Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and
Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) in Afghanistan since 2001. And a
disproportionate number of those service members come from the southeastern
United States. According to the Augusta Chronicle, 70 percent
of troops returning from OEF/OIF come from the southeast. There are 14
military installations in Georgia and according to the Department of Defense,
as of FY 2008 there were 96,636 active duty and Reserve personnel in the
state. Next year, 34,000 veterans are slated to return to Georgia from
the Army National Guard 48th Infantry Brigade.
More
survivors with serious wounds - - Since 9/11, for every
American who has died in battle, dozens more have survived thanks in large part
to cutting edge military medical care. Like no other war before,
survivors of the War on Terror have serious injuries. Service men and
women are returning with wounds that, in earlier conflicts, would have been
fatal. According to the Dole-Shalala Report, in the Vietnam era five out
of every eight seriously injured service members survived. Today, seven
out of eight survive.
Invisible
wounds - - At the same time, not all injuries from combat are visible.
Combat stress, or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), has become the
most common disability facing today's combat service members. According
to the RAND Report Invisible Wounds, 18.5 percent of troops
returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are suffering either from PTSD or
depression and an additional 19.5 percent report experiencing a traumatic brain
injury during deployment.
PTSD
is an anxiety disorder that can occur after a traumatic event involving the
threat of injury or death. But there is a difference between the PTSD of
a car wreck survivor and that of a soldier who is threatened with injury or
death day after day, week after week, for months at a time. Characterized
by intrusive thoughts, painful memories, recurring nightmares, sleep loss, and
hyper-vigilance combat PTSD is exacerbated by the battle mindset. During
combat, a soldier’s responsibility is to survive and to do their best to keep
their buddies alive. This can compound the normal sense of survivor
guilt; most believe that they have failed their comrades who were killed or seriously
injured.
Pain
isolates because it cannot be shared by anyone who has not had the same
traumatic experience. So there is more than a grain of truth in a combat
veteran’s belief that family members or therapists will not understand because
they haven’t “been there.” At the same time, research indicates that talking
about a trauma is one key to unlocking its grip.
Unfortunately,
returning warriors, especially men, can be reluctant to open up. For
anyone steeped in a culture that demands discipline and celebrates stoicism,
their first reaction is often to “suck it up.” But as more servicemembers
self-medicate with drugs and alcohol, the Army and other branches of the
service have responded by launching behavioral health programs and actively
seeking to encourage participation. “The Army is really putting a lot of
intensive effort into treating substance abuse as well as the underlying
psychological problems associated with PTSD because you can’t treat one without
the other,” says Colonel Philip Horton, Medical Director, Residential Treatment
Facility, Fort Gordon, Georgia.
While
the military is working hard to encourage servicemembers to seek behavioral
healthcare when they need it, such a cultural sea change takes time.
A New England Journal of Medicine Study found that more than
60 percent of OIF/OEF veterans showing symptoms of PTSD were unlikely to seek
care for fear of stigmatization or loss of career advancement opportunities
(Friedman, 2004).
Another
cultural change has come in the wake of OEF/OIF where women, as never before,
are taking part in combat. Quoting a New York Times series entitled Women
at Arms:
Of
the two million Americans who have fought in these wars since 2001, more than
220,000 of them, or 11 percent, have been women.
Like
men, some women have come home bearing the mental and physical scars of bombs
and bullets, loss and killing. Women who are veterans of the Iraq and
Afghanistan wars appear to suffer rates of post-traumatic stress disorder
comparable to those of men, a recent study showed.
Female
warriors have additional stresses including incidence of sexual trauma and
assault while on active duty. The New York Times series Women at
Arms included anarticle by Steven Lee Myers reporting from Iraq,
“Living and Fighting Alongside Men, and Fitting In,” published August 16, 2009:
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