Cramer, Maria, “Unit Readies for Combat, helping troops mental health: Military stress unit feels its importance in wake of shooting,” The Boston Globe, 19Aug05, B1,9.

 

 

Editorial, The Boston Globe, 19Aug05, A16.

 

 

OVERVIEW

 

After returning from a seven-month tour of duty in Iraq, Marine reservist, Daniel Cotneir, who had been cited for bravery, was bothered by a noisy party crowd outside his window. There was some conversation between him and the partiers that led to a bottle being thrown from the street through his window. Apparently, Cotneir took a shotgun and shot it above the crowd at no one in particular. But a stray pellet or two ricocheted into a couple of people in the crowd, one of them a girl trying to get away from the scene who received a fragment in her leg which doctors said should be left there. The veteran was charged with a felony. His attorney cited PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorders).

 

Recent studies have shown the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorders among combat soldiers. Flash-backs, sleep disorders, depression, and anxiety attacks often follow those who return from situations where they’ve seen buddies killed and been involved themselves in killing enemy troops—who sometimes turn out to be mere boys.

 

The first article (above) describes the efforts of a special military company, the 883 Combat Stress Control Company, a group of about 80 Army specialists who assess the emotional state of fighting soldiers in Iraq.

 

In the war against Iraq, there is another unit involved in a quieter, but increasingly crucial form of combat: preserving the mental health of soldiers on the battlefield…. The company’s motto is “conserve the fighting strengths.” The goal is to ease a stressed-out soldier back into combat… Often, a soldier may need a one-day respite from battle, and company members must assess whether he or she needs more time away from combat, counseling, or serious medical attention.

 

Lieutenant Colonel Samuel Poulten, executive officer of the 309^th Combat Support Hospital, which has several members in the 883^rd described how this war has no set boundaries between combatant and support troops.

 

The thing now is, everywhere is a battlefield. Roadside bombs don’t know whether you’re a combat soldier or a combat support soldier.

 

You will find nurses, psychiatrists, and social workers in this company—newcomers as young as 23 and “grizzled veterans of Vietnam.” It tries to be a quick response unit, moving in teams to reach troops in action, walking around base camp describing their function. “The fact of the matter is with any mental health situation, people don’t tend to seek help. There has always been a stigma of mental health issues,” said one member of this team. And, of course there is also an issue of the mental health of those doing the supporting. Poulten complimented his team but also expressed some concern:

 

They do it so well that it’s phenomenal. You have to wonder who takes care of the combat stress support for the combat stress supporter.

 

The editorial above further comments on these issues.

 

The first step in dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder among active-duty troops and veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars (and any war) is often the most difficult: getting soldiers and Marines to acknowledge that they need help. Troops worry that they will be stigmatized by a diagnosis of PTSD or, if they are heading home, that admission of a problem will slow their return to their families.

 

The US military must take stronger measures to ensure that PTSD is detected in a timely way, and the Department of Veteran Affairs needs to provide more resources to treat veterans who reach out for assistance.

 

The 883d company is making its own efforts stateside to make sure that returning soldiers and their families get help with PTSD if they need it. In a pilot program, members of the unit have been making calls to Reservists who are back home. “The majority are doing a great job adjusting,” said Lieutenant Laura Curtis, “but some need support.”

 

Massachusetts Representative Martin Meehan (of Lowell, MA), a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, is convinced “that PTSD will be the major medical problem of the Iraq war…. He wants the $3 billion the Department of Veteran Affairs annually spends treating PTSD and other forms of mental illness to be at least doubled. His bill would require the VA to help soldiers who need treatment to get it on outpatient basis from non-VA providers if they live far from any VA clinics.”

 

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

 

1.     What is your opinion about war or any kind? What do you think about the U.S. war in Iraq and Afghanistan?

 

2.     Do you think pacifists and those who justify some wars need to find ways to discuss current policies? Is there a need for dialog between those who support and those against the current Iraq war?

 

3.     What, in your opinion, does our government, and all of us, owe those who have put their lives on the line in Iraq? How should this translate into Veterans’ benefits—and particularly this bill to increase the mental health provisions for Iraq veterans?

 

4.     What can families, friends and all of us do for those who serve, some called back repeatedly, to military service abroad?

 

IMPLICATIONS

 

1.     One lesson from the Iraq war certainly is that none of those who led or supported it counted the full cost of the venture—in lives on both sides, in national attention and energy, and in funding costs and debt.

 

2.     More attention should be given the welfare of those who fight our wars, and their families. From time to time, we should remember those who languish in hospitals or suffer want because of their military service and sacrifice. No soldier’s spouse should be evicted or go hungry for lack of finances.