Army counsels soldiers dealing with Iraq war aftermath

[Khephra]

Army Sgt. Joe Dombrowski did not see the worst of the war, but he witnessed some pretty bad stuff: the sound of enemy artillery as his unit crossed the Tigris River; the bloodstains on a Humvee after one of his commanders was killed; the soldier who survived a grenade blast that blackened even the whites of his eyes.

Now, when the latest news from Iraq comes on his big-screen TV back home, Dombrowski looks away.

"I listen to it, but I don't want to see it again," says Dombrowski, 31, who recently returned from Iraq. "Some of that stuff I want to push away, and I don't want to talk about it."

Dombrowski is still working through his feelings, just as many of his comrades are doing.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/10/06/national1353EDT0585.DTL

[izzie]

1. Did you see that TV show on the ill ones?

I swear the reporter said over 6000 had passed through the hospital in Germany. I came in on the end of story so not sure what it was. It was on CNN

[kskiska]

2. I saw that story. It was Aaron Brown on CNN.

Planes arrive in Germany every day. Sometimes there are only a few wounded, other times there's an entire planeful. They showed their injuries in graphic detail. There was a photograph of a man's foot with a big hole where his heel had been.

[olmy]

4. I saw that too, and that's the first time I heard a number. 6000?

The story was heart breaking. Those parents that cried about their son's leg injury. This is beyond obscene. They also said the surgery unit runs 24/7.

[northernsoul]

3. PTSD is the invisible maiming

A lot of these guys will be coming home with their bodies intact, but psyches that have been horribly damaged.
We must hold out our compassion for all those who have been wounded by this debacle, whether the wounds are visible or not.

[InkAddict]

5. "This too shall pass"? but not until your lives are destroyed?

In fact, I hear that hypnosis can be very effective in suppressing pain of all sorts. Yep, a little additional mind-control will help our maimed soldiers sort out their emotions and PTSD and help them find fulfilling civilian employment so they can avoid the harrassment of Jody (Viet-Nam vets will recall this name-he steals your girl or whatever), the call-center collectors in New Delhi/China.

And just who will help the "guilty" Combat Stress folks? That is, once they come home and are forced to listen to and treat only the "sniffling civilian whiners" in doc's cushy little "just a little bit country" private practice suites. You know the ones, the office visits that the compassionate conservative shrinks are forced to listen to to pay off their school loans as they sleep through those insurance-backed sessions and essentially hear nothing awaiting the next debacle. Yep, treating those ungrateful civilians who had their livihoods massacred in the name of this QUAGMIRE for corporate profit, the Viet-Nam era vets nearing the close of their careers who have been systematically over the last 25 years eliminated from any sort of self-reliant American retirement, and the new "sacrificing" reservists.


POINT AND SHOOT! It's a Kodak Moment - Let's have a shooting party and recall old times:
http://federalvoice.dscc.dla.mil/federalvoice/020130/reunion.html

HUM, TELL ME ABOUT THAT.....
http://federalvoice.dscc.dla.mil/federalvoice/020911/zero.html

VALIDATE AND DISTRACT - ARMY COMBAT STRESS MANUAL (while your portfolio grows!)
http://www.vnh.org/FM22-51/CSCTOC.html

AGAIN, HOW DO THESE "doctors" SLEEP AT NIGHT. What kind of minds relish the stories heard in "saving" the destroyed minds/lives of our soldiers, then come home to make sure they get their $$ from the insurance companies?

[revcarol]

6. I heard a program on NPR about this.

They LECTURE the soldiers in groups of 150 plus.Pschiatrists have to release all information to the military, so there goes a career in the military.
Vietnam all over again, except for those who were far enough away not to see the results of their actions.And those who killed innocent civilians...especially families and children.