1 Boring Old Man

In the Bush Wars, we’ve had an all volunteer Army – and have used National Guardsmen to fill the ranks [essentially destroying the idea of a "National" "Guard"]. Many of us suspect that they used the Guard and multiple deployments to avoid having to reinstitute the Draft, keeping the War out of the living rooms of Americans who might object.

Multiple Deployments Lead to Major Increase in PTSD Cases
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by: Mary Susan Littlepage
05 January 2010

^{Soldiers with multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan are more than three times as likely as soldiers with no previous deployments to screen positive for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and major depression, according to a new study published by the American Journal for Public Health. Additionally, soldiers with multiple deployments are more than twice as likely to report chronic pain and more than 90 percent more likely to score below the general population norm on physical functioning…}

^{"Those experiencing multiple deployments are most at risk, with the Office of the US Army Surgeon General reporting mental health problems in 11.9 percent of those with one deployment, 18.5 percent with two deployments and 27.2 percent with three or four deployments," the report stated… "What we’re seeing is a people who are having more serious PTSD when they’re called up for an additional deployment, and that triggers a lot of mental health issues – in fact, suicidal action in some cases," Fairweather said. "But it’s also mixed with a lot of conflicting feelings of guilt" in that if people have PTSD, they are a danger toward other people, but Fairweather said they may think, "Who am I to try to get out of this? Who am I to complain?" when fellow soldiers are going through the same hell…}

^{Although the health consequences of soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan have focused attention on the medical needs of returning veterans, the report stated, "Concern has also centered on the military readiness of our fighting force, given the unprecedented pattern of repeat deployments unique to this particular conflict." Of all the soldiers deployed to Iraq since the war began in March 2003, about 38 percent of soldiers have been deployed more than once and 10 percent have been deployed three times or more, the report stated… Fairweather said, "The deployments are so stressful and different than what we’ve seen in previous conflicts. There are no front lines, and it’s 24/7 combat.""There is no clear standard for what constitutes a medically fit fighting force (having PTSD, for example, does not disqualify someone from military service), and symptom reporting on screening instruments does not substitute for a diagnostic assessment by a medical professional," the report read.}

^{In any case, the Pentagon’s data indicate that between 2003 and 2008, 43,000 troops "deemed medically unfit for active duty by their physicians were deployed to Iraq," the report stated. Also, the report stated that the Office of the US Army Surgeon General found that "multiple deployments have adverse effects on work performance during deployment, with multiple deployed soldiers being more likely than are others to report limitations in their ability to work effectively"…}

^{In conclusion, the report stated, "Our findings suggest that repeated deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan adversely affect the physical and mental functioning of New Jersey National Guard troops. The implications of these findings for the health of all active-duty forces recalled to [Iraq and Afghanistan] combat require further investigation."}

This book is to be neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it. I will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped its shells, were destroyed by the war.

That was the war that taught us about P.T.S.D. What it was. What caused it. Anyone reading the literature from those days could’ve easily predicted the results of this study, but we sent them into the situation anyway. And if this war is like the ones before it, the incidence of war related mental illness is way under-reported by the soldiers themselves. So we’ll learn that the problems will get worse over time. The soldier’s parents know, and their wives know, and their children will figure it out in their own psychotherapy years later. Tragedy is bad enough. To have lived a tragedy and to know it was not necessary is much worse. In my last post, I was proposing that America is in a state of Lamentation. What we’ve done to our soldiers is , at least for me, part of that Lament…