PTSD- The reality of Warfare

Name: Keenan Robert Dermody
Student Number: 011531
Form Class: R12
Teacher: Mr. Bradley Smith
Topic: The effects of combat and straining / confronting situations on the morale and psychological state of soldiers who fought the Vietnam War.
Assessment: Multi-Modal Presentation + Research and Reflection Journal (Category 2-Written Research Task) Formative, Criteria C1, C2, C3.
Due Date: September 13th 2010


Prologue:
This presentation was made to provide a realistic, no-crap side of a conspiratorial war; Vietnam. By using powerful images, strong under-lying theme music and explicit Vietnam combat footage; I aimed to open eyes to what went on during Vietnam. We have been constantly fed American lies about the war; how we “won” in Vietnam. We did not win the war; we lost 500 good servicemen and women over there; that is what this presentation is about; showing a realistic side of Vietnam.

Script:
The experience of a traumatic or emotionally straining event can be diagnosed as the root problem responsible for bringing on symptoms of a psychological condition known, today, as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Before further research was conducted, people who suffered from such symptoms were said to have been coping with “soldier’s heart, battle fatigue or shellshock.” In higher degrees of severity, the sufferer may be diagnosed with Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD). There has been many an argument as to how and why soldiers were inflicted with such conditions; but this inquiry and argument has been based around the hypothesis of: “hostile situations during warfare, not only during the Vietnam era, but across every conflict in history, have severe negative effects and impacts on the morale and psychological state and stability of the soldiers involved.” To find out why soldiers developed PTSD, one must first look at what experiences the veterans were living in on a daily basis.

The war in Vietnam was fought in and unconventional manner, that is, there were no trenches 140 feet apart, no enemy in plain sight to take a shot at. The Viet Cong (or the National Liberation Front) employed guerilla warfare tactics, using hit and run methods to maximise the use of limited resources (supplied by the Soviet Union and China) and manpower. Soldiers could have quite possibly been forced to make split second judgments whilst on patrols; whether or not to shoot a Vietnamese carrying what looked like the silhouette of an AK-47 assault rifle. Should the soldier have taken the shot, and discovered it was a fourteen year old child playing games with a stick, he would have to carry that memory burning in his conscience for the rest of the war, and when he returned home from service.

According to a “Mortality without Units” document, out of the 6613 veterans (army, navy and air force combined) on the roll, 3.78%, or 250 of the veterans’ deaths were explicitly recorded as suicides, the majority undesignated in the cause of death area.

Soldiers learned to grow hard and callous, emotionless, felling nothing at all when killing another. That is what Vietnam had reduced our veterans to; emotionless tools of war able to kill in cold blood. “…Vietnam changed you…” as stated by Ted Cowell, a veteran speaking of his experiences of war in the book; “Ashes of Vietnam” by Stuart Rintoul. Cowell also quotes; “I saw too much of that sort of thing, far too much, and you never forgot it. I still have nightmares about it eighteen years later. That’s the trouble, you see. You never forget it.” Eighteen years after the war and Ted Cowell still relives Vietnam everyday.

The Second Indochina War, or commonly referred to as the Vietnam War / Conflict, occurred in the nation of Vietnam, from 1955 to the 30th of April 1975, when Communist forces of North Vietnam overran the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City.) “…Estimates have shown that out of the 1.6 million American personnel who went to war, 800 000, fifty percent, have been diagnosed as having had severe emotional and psychological problems since the war, and an eighth of the 1.6 million, 200 000, have been diagnosed with PTSD in some degree.” (Halexandria Org Article based on Reincarnation is Making a Comeback [Dan S. Ward, PhD, 1990] pp-1.) Anybody, from children to the elderly, can be diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Suffering through the unexpected death of a loved one, sudden divorce or even unemployment can bring on certain aspects of PTSD.


Rintoul’s book “Ashes of Vietnam” prints the stories and statements of veterans from Vietnam in the form of interviews, uncensored with the exception of the removal of some words to make reading easier. This secondary source provided an extremely useful insight into the minds of our veterans. The statements given by the soldiers are a primary source, however, and were a valuable asset to the inquiry.

Allen May speaks about his witnessing of the leadership in Vietnam crumbling in a concise paragraph; “…People went off their brains because of what they found when we went back there [to a site of engagement] … The corporal in charge of my platoon, a very fine little bloke, completely snapped his brain. He picked up one of the dead Viet Cong by the feet and just swung him around and smashed his head open against a tree…” As he explains, the Corporal, their leader, snapped. The platoon went back to the area three months later and could hear the wild pigs digging up the bodies they had buried after the contact. It is highly probable that the Corporal had been suffering mentally and/or physically from the war and had exploded after the contact.

A veteran of the twenty-four hour battle at Binh Bah, Ric, recounts how he murdered a sixteen year old teen in the confusion and hate of a firefight; “I shot a kid in Binh Bah and it was the worst experience I ever had. The kid was still alive and I blew him away…I’d wounded him first up…I saw him go down and I kept going then I thought ‘fuck this’ and I went back and emptied a magazine into his head…He had an AK so it was valid but you just didn’t know. Binh Bah was really fucked up. It was fascinating, I guess, watching a human face turn to pulp in front of your eyes…” Ric states that he can still see the kid’s eyes haunting him today, and that his outlook on the firefight was that of a Charlie Chaplin movie.

These two recollections are enough to sufficiently explain the sort of warfare in Vietnam; the Vietnamese man selling Coke to you on the corner could well be the black-clad Viet Cong fighter cracking off rounds at you the very same night. Atrocities occurred frequently; every day in Vietnam was a huge strain on the morale, or battle esteem, of soldiers. Some reached their ends’ length and put a pistol to their head, but those that coped relived the war in grueling detail every day afterwards.

Symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder can be broken up into three simple categories; recurrent, avoidance and chronic. Nightmares, flashbacks and troublesome memories fall under the “recurrent” category. Keeping away from particular places, people or events are examples of avoidance behaviour. And sleeping or eating disorders, poor concentration, hyper arousal and increased hyper vigilance to threats and being startled are chronic symptoms. These are by no means the ONLY signs of PTSD, some veterans can go the opposite way and “glorify” the war and tell of the “good times” they had during Vietnam.
“Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a psychological disorder stemming from continuing and severe stress, including the stress associated with combat, concentration camps, near-death events, and other horrors. Killing, sustained exposure to the possibility of sudden death, and witnessing the violent death of friends can have a lasting, traumatic consequence for a high percentage of survivors.” (Halexandria Org. pp-1.)
Prolonged exposure to high-risk situations where a mate or oneself could be seriously harmed or killed substantially decreases a soldier’s morale and will to “slug on.” Cases of Absent Without Official Leave (AWOL) and desertion of post were quite possible during the war.
When soldiers returned home, few spoke about what they had endured, even to a wife or partner. Many simply drank away what they had experienced. Families broke down; wives and partners wondered if they were to blame, children didn’t understand why Dad wasn’t the same anymore and the veterans themselves wondered why they survived and others died. There are a multitude of treatments available for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder; therapeutical talking about the problem itself, psychological and/or physiological therapy and certain medication groups.

A case example of a veteran who has suffered PTSD is Paul O’Connell, who was a grunt in Mike Company, 3rd Battalion 5th Marines during Vietnam and was posted on several major operations. During his tour of Vietnam, he wrote a total of 80 letters home to his parents and family. Reading all of the letters available; this source has become the centerpiece of this inquiry. The most impacting of the collection was letter nineteen, which is as follows:
“2 Dec 68

Hi everybody,

It's been a few days since I've written. I've received your mail up to the 25th and also received a package from ma & grampa. Will you please thank them for me as I probably won't have time.
In one of your last letters you wanted to know more about the country. Well, scenery wise, the country is beautiful, except for the barbwire and bunkers spread out all over the countryside. The people themselves are filthy and make me sick. You learn not to trust them; and if you can find any reason to shoot them, you do. I've been shot at by too many innocent looking people to have any mercy. They learn to fire a rifle even before they walk.
I've enclosed an article about the operation where they surrounded those 1,000 VC. Fortunately, Mike company was the only company in the 5th Marines not to go; but these pictures will give you an idea what I look like, combat wise, and a little idea what a village looks like and all that stuff.
Common sense says that if all the companies are out except for us and the VC know this, they will hit us hard; and let me tell ya, they have. We haven't gone a night without getting hit. If it ain't mortars, it's rockets. If it ain't either of them, it's sniper fire or an assault. When I die, I've got to go to heaven because I've been through hell.
It doesn't bother you at all killing these people cause they are pure scum and sneaky; and also if you don't kill them first, they will get you. But there is no worry cause I've been spraying the walls, deck, and overhead pretty good.
Well, got to go for now; and don't worry cause I've got my stuff together.
Hope you like the pictures.
Love, Paul”
(“Letters Home” [Paul O’Connell, April 2000] pp-39-40.) The letter collection provided a very solid idea of the reasoning behind a soldier’s actions, what thoughts were racing through his mind; what kept him up at night… Even more useful than the letters themselves was the reflections that Paul recorded when he had re-read the letters sixteen years after the war. The “Looking Back”, as he names it, for letter nineteen explains the theory behind the sharpness of the words:
“I didn't get to see the letters that I had written to my family for more than 16 years. When my father did give them to me, I found them to be very disturbing, especially this one. Did I really have such an opinion of the Vietnamese while I was there? Hard to admit it, but I probably did. There was so much fear, anger, and frustration in being in Vietnam. I was constantly tired. Never got a whole nights sleep. On watch for a few hours, then a few hours of sleep (curled in a ball, wrapped in a poncho liner, lying on top of my green rubber poncho, laid on the wet ground), then another watch, then a little more sleep, then patrol all day.
And it rained all the time, and I stayed constantly soaked. And there was even this frustration inside me because Mike Co. hadn't gone on Operation Meade River. Despite the fact I was hearing stories about Marines being killed on this operation, I yearned to be there, to be a part of those who had surrounded the 1,000 VC...I was still a FNG, yet I was slowly growing angry.
About this time, I heard that another friend of mine, who I had gone through ITR with, was killed during Operation Meade River.

++ Remembering PFC Douglas L. Warner, Born 4/19/50 -- KIA 11/29/68++
++(Touch his name at Panel 37W - Line 8)++

I don't think that the concept of being dead had sunk into my thick skull back during the time I first heard about Warner's death. I was still too young. Guess USMC had me thinking their way.

--Paul O'Connell--
1996”
(“Letters Home” [Paul O’Connell, 1996] pp-39-40.) Other than the hatred of the Vietnamese people expressed in his letters, Paul admits in other “Looking Back” reflections that he would lie and/or make up stories of wild engagements with the odds against him to send home to his family.
In the later letters (#50 to #59) it becomes apparent that O’Connell was suffering from an escalating degree of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He spent time at 1st Medical Battalion Da Nang; where he quotes; “…I had finally gotten what I had wished for. I had finally made it to the nut house where I felt I belonged…”
Stress Disorders have a prominent effect on today’s society; as we just start to realise that this condition is real, and it is serious. No longer does it seem amusing to watch your grandfather, in stitches of laughter, jump and cower at the sound of a car backfiring. Soldiers of today are still witnessing things that have severe negative effects on their psychological stability.

Andy McNab of the British Special Air Service (SAS) toured Iraq in 1990 and was captured by the Iraqis. He suffered through brutal interrogation that entailed; beatings, starvation, dehydration, threatening. After weeks of suffering, he was set free and returned home. He states at the ends with the final closing sentence; “And as for the people who interrogated me, if I met any of them in the street tomorrow and thought I could get away with it, I’d slot [kill] them.” As long as there is war going on in some part of the world, people will still come home shell-shocked.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is a serious condition, and left untreated, can even drive somebody to insanity. Sufferers need all the support they can muster, not laughing and jokes about their behaviour in situations. This inquiry was insightful in the way of discovering about this condition, and of the problems and difficulties it causes veterans and other sufferers. What had truly gone on in Vietnam we may never know; but we’re all reduced to animals in warfare…

Keenan Robert Dermody
3rd October 2010