A chest full of medals and a head full of nightmares

Dr. Kernan Manion, a psychiatrist who was fired after he
complained about conditions for his PTSD patients at
Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, N.C.
(AP Photo/Jim R. Bounds)

Veterans with PTSD have a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. The Veterans Administration has made remarkable progress in identifying and treating veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and the Department of Defense is finally doing something to find out how and why active duty servicemen and women get PTSD.

Unfortunately, the Marine Corps also recently decided to shoot the messenger rather than fix the problem identified in the message. So a lot still needs to be done.

The Navy Times reports that the Marine Corps fired Dr. Kernan Manion, a psychiatrist treating Marines with PTSD at Camp Lejune, North Carolina, after he wrote memos to his military superiors complaining about the shoddy care given to Marines returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with PTSD.

How do we help a guy make sense of all that and heal from that when the Marine Corps is saying to get treatment means you’re weak?”

According to research published in the New England Journal of Medicine, 17% of the troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan have PTSD. In 1984, the National Vietnam Veterans' Readjustment Study (NVVRS) found similar rates for Vietnam Veterans. But only about 40% of veterans with PTSD seek treatment.

There’s still a stigma attached to PTSD, and veterans with PTSD just can’t get any respect.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is one of the most debilitating injuries a soldier can suffer in war time. It is life-long condition that can be treated but can never be cured. It’s an ailment that destroys lives.

The Department of Defense has known this for 25 years but still hasn’t come to terms with it yet. According to the NVVRS study, veterans with PTSD suffer from psychological disorders including depression, anxiety, and alcohol and drug addiction.  They also have much higher rates of “occupational instability, marital conflicts, and family problems.”

Research published by the Veterans’ Families United Foundation shows that veterans with PTSD constantly experience “conflict at work and subsequent inability to hold a job. This means that veterans with PTSD pay a high economic price because they fought for their country.

Continued loss of employment and employment opportunities … compromise the families’ financial security.” 

In short, Veterans with PTSD earn less than their counterparts because they suffered a brain injury while serving their country.

Veterans with PTSD return home with a chest full of medals and a head full of nightmares. But the medals wind up at the bottom of a drawer or packed away in a suitcase buried in the back of a closet, unlooked at, unheeded. The medals are a trigger for the nightmares and flashbacks that haunt those with PTSD.

They are a reminder that America still doesn’t seem to care about the sacrifices these men and women made for their country. The medals, which were awarded to recognize their service to their country and the heroism they displayed in combat, should be a source of pride to these veterans.

Instead, the medals are an open sore constantly eating away at the veteran with PTSD, because the Department of Defense refuses to give them any recognition for the suffering they have had to endure every day of their lives after serving in combat.

What good are the Presdiential Unit Citations, the Distinguish Flying Crosses, and the Commendation Medals when the Department of Defense still treats veterans with PTSD as second class citizens?

The Department of Defense awards no medal for PTSD. There are medals for serving in Vietnam, and Iraq, and Afghanistan. There’s even a medal for being on active duty during wartime, even if you never get shot at.

But there is no medal to recognize that servicemen and women with PTSD have given up a significant part of their lives for their county.

The VA recognizes PTSD as a disability, and PTSD qualifies you for membership in the Disabled American Veterans (DAV). But the Department of Defense does not recognize PTSD at all.

You get awarded the Purple Heart for being wounded, whether you lose both your legs or if you have a flesh wound that leaves a scar on your thigh, but doesn’t leave you disabled. And no one should question that.

But for suffering a brain injury that disables you for life, the Department of Defense gives you nothing.

“The Defense Department has determined that based on current Purple Heart criteria, PTSD is not a qualifying Purple Heart wound.” According to the Department of Defense, PTSD, “is not a wound intentionally caused by the enemy.”

Well then who caused it? Mickey Mouse?

The situation is definitely FUBAR at the DoD.

If the enemy hadn’t tried to kill these veterans, they wouldn’t have PTSD. But the DoD can’t see that. They don’t seem to understand that one of the purposes of shelling troops, shooting at troops, and planting roadside bombs is to debilitate the troops in any possible way.

Look at pictures from any war of soldiers with the "thousand mile stare." Those soldiers have PTSD and have to be pulled out of combat. That is "a wound intentionally caused by the enemy." DoD doesn’t see it that way.

Why doesn't the DoD recognize PTSD as a wound? Because the DoD bureaucracy would have to do something different and the DoD bureaucracy isn’t good at that.

There are thousands of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with PTSD, who will struggle to get through Thanksgiving. Holidays are always hard for veterans with PTSD and their families.

Let’s get on the DoD’s case so Veterans with PTSD will have something to be thankful for next Thanksgiving.

Log on to the Department of Defense website, and ask them why they don’t recognize PTSD as a wound, and why they don’t award any medal to the service men and women who have PTSD because they risked their lives for their country.

If enough people ask, maybe the DoD will come up with an answer.