"Tom Lacombe" <tlacombe@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:ed877323-1d2e-4031-a938-953b13f5a0d7@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
May 13, 12:06 pm, "The Unknown Veteran" <yeahri...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
wrote:
> Gates: Purple Heart for PTSD 'Needs to Be Looked At'
> By Donna Miles
> American Forces Press Service
>
> WA****NGTON, May 5, 2008 - With growing recognition of the toll
> post-traumatic stress disorder has taken on U.S. forces, Defense
Secretary
> Robert M. Gates
> said the Defense Department may consider awarding Purple Heart medals to
> combat veterans afflicted with it.
> "It's an interesting idea," Gates said when asked about the concept
during
> a
> May 2 media availability at Red River Army Depot, Texas. "I think it is
> clearly something that needs to be looked at."
>
> Gates' comment followed his visit the previous day to Fort Bliss, Texas,
> where he toured the post's Recovery and Resilience Center, which is
using
> a
> holistic approach to treating troops with PTSD.
>
> John E. Fortunato, who conceived of and runs the center, told re****ters
> that
> awarding the Purple Heart to PTSD sufferers would go a long way toward
> chipping away at prejudices surrounding the disease. Because PTSD
affects
> structures in the brain, it's a physical disorder, "no different from
> shrapnel,"
> Fortunato said. "This is an injury."
>
> The Army classifies PTSD as an illness, not an injury, so troops with
PTSD
> don't qualify for the Purple Heart. That distinction is limited to
troops
> killed or wounded in a conflict.
>
> "I would love to see that changed, because these guys have paid at least
> as
> high a price, some of them, as anybody with a traumatic brain injury, as
> anybody with a shrapnel wound," Fortunato said.
>
> Not recognizing those with PTSD with a Purple Heart "says that this is
the
> wound that isn't worthy," Fortunato said. "And it is."
>
> Fortunato said he'd also like to see a regulation prohibiting harassment
> of
> troops with PTSD, similar to regulations banning racial or ***ual
> harassment.
> "Until there are sanctions that make a superior pay a price for
harassing
> a
> soldier with mental health problems, I don't know that it will change
that
> much."
>
> Soldiers still get laughed at for seeking mental-health services or told
> that it will ruin their careers, he said. Some in the force view people
> with
> PTSD as weak, believing that if those with the disease "just sucked it
up
> and
> soldiered on, [they would] could get over this," Fortunato said.
>
> "The Army is making a lot of strides toward changing that, but it's a
slow
> go, because it has to happen at the grassroots level," he said. "Like
any
> other prejudice, it's hard to die."
>
> During his visit to Fort Bliss, Gates announced a new policy in which
> combat
> veterans no longer have to acknowledge on their federal security
clearance
> forms that they have received mental health care for combat stress.
Gates
> said
> he hoped the policy would eliminate troops' concerns that seeking
> mentalhealth care can cause them to be denied a security clearance and
> threaten their
> careers. He also expressed hope it would take the stigma away from
seeking
> treatment.
>
> Gates called on senior noncommissioned officers to encourage their
> soldiers
> who need it to get care, and to let them know that doing so is a sign of
> strength, not weakness.
>
> "All of you have a special role in encouraging troops to seek help for
the
> unseen scars of war -- to let them know that doing so is a sign of
> strength
> and maturity," Gates told soldiers attending the Army Sergeants Major
> Academy,
> at Fort Bliss. "I urge you all to talk with those below you to find out
> where we can continue to improve.
>
> "Those who have sacrificed for our nation deserve the best care they can
> get," he continued. "As I have said before, there is no higher priority
> for
> the
> Department of Defense, after the war itself, than caring for our wounded
> warriors."
> __________________________________________
>
> I always thought combat caused PTSD should be awarded the purple heart.
> Maybe the military is finally realizing that those with PTSd are not
> cowards.
When I first saw this post I thought I ought to check it out on
snopes.com. Nothing there, so it may be for real. I can see Patton
rolling over in his grave at the thought. I would be against it
Tom I'm surprised that you take such a view on this. A grunt should be
well
aware of the effects of combat on the human mind.
War wounds take on many guises and affects many diferently.
What would your comment be about a soldier awarded the purple heart for
being wounded by shrapnel or shot while running from battle?
I would be more inclined to award a purple heart for PTSD than for some of
the scratches I have seen it awarded for.
PTSD is a life long disability and as many are being kept in a combat
situation way longer than the average grunt in Nam the injury is more
prevalant.
A lot of the soldiers today are put into a combat situation and were never
trained or conditioned for such a situation.
The situation Patton was ****trayed in was condemned and by all and he
apologized, although I don't think sincerely, but he is one of the reasons
it is looked upon as a cowardly wound and is the source of most of the
stigma associated with it.
Most with PTSD did not sit cowering in a hole while others fought as
****trayed in Patton. Actually the opposite is true. Most saw so much
combat that it altered their brain
to the point of being rendered useless as a soldier and as a citizen.
Watch some of the do***entaries on the island fighting during WW2
especially
Okinawa, Tarawa, and Iwo and tell me those guys don't deserve purple
hearts.
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