Posted on 10/10/2015 7:56:57 AM PDT by tired&retired
A three-member board recommended Friday that Fort Bragg Staff Sgt. Joshua Eisenhauer be separated from the Army on a general discharge under honorable conditions.
When he awoke in a Chapel Hill hospital bed, Eisenhauer looked at his nurse and demanded to know: "Who's covering the roof?"
A psychologist and a psychiatrist testified Friday that severe PTSD and other factors led Eisenhauer to suffer a "pathological flashback" that caused him to think he was shooting at Afghan insurgents, not police and firefighters.
"The blur of reality is just all crunching around him. So what's he shooting at? He's not even sure," said psychologist G. Martin Woodard of Sanford.
Woodard said he is "100 percent" confident in his assessment that Eisenhauer suffered a flashback.
Testimony Friday revealed that the Army diagnosed Eisenhauer with PTSD after his first deployment in 2008.
During that deployment, soldiers who were with Eisenhauer testified, their task force came under fire hundreds of times.
Despite the PTSD diagnosis, testimony showed, Eisenhauer was allowed to redeploy to Afghanistan in 2009.
During that deployment, a suicide bomber in a pickup truck swerved into a forward operating base where Eisenhauer was unloading a truck. The bomber detonated his payload, killing two soldiers whom Eisenhauer had been talking to minutes earlier.
Eisenhauer watched one of the men die, according to testimony.
Soldier after soldier testified to Eisenhauer's character, describing him as trustworthy, dedicated, loyal and a comrade they wanted watching their back. But they said Eisenhauer changed after the suicide bombing, becoming hyper-vigilant and rarely sleeping.
Sgt. Maj. Richard Flowers took notice, and Eisenhauer was sent to Kuwait, where he was again diagnosed with PTSD, according to testimony.
Eisenhauer returned to Fort Bragg in 2010 and was placed in the post's Warrior Transition Battalion for mentally and physically wounded soldiers.
(Excerpt) Read more at fayobserver.com ...
Conormon, along with lawyer Mark Waple, is fighting for the Army to provide Eisenhauer medical care for the rest of his life. They contend that Eisenhauer was so wracked by PTSD that he suffered a flashback and thought he was shooting at Afghan insurgents - not at police and firefighters - from his Austin Creek apartment in west Fayetteville.
Eisenhauer, who enlisted in 2005 after a conviction for resisting arrest near his home in Fort Worth, Texas, twice deployed to Afghanistan - in 2007-08 and 2009-10. Soldiers who were with Eisenhauer on his first deployment said they experienced hundreds of firefights, sometimes as many as two or three a day.
Their job as a theater task force in Helmand province and other areas of Afghanistan was to move toward "the sounds of the guns," Staff Sgt. John Drollinger said. Drollinger said the task force rooted out enemy insurgents, often by knocking down doors and killing them. At times, he and other soldiers said, their unit was forced to fight without sleep in stretches that lasted for days. Drollinger and other soldiers who testified all used similar words to describe Eisenhauer: loyal, trustworthy, unwavering, honorable and dedicated. "He was rock steady. If he had my back today I wouldn't have to turn around," said former Staff Sgt. Justin Shultz, speaking by phone from his home in Louisville, Kentucky. "He was the guy you counted on. I never thought anybody would ever question his character." But soldiers said that changed after Eisenhauer's second deployment, to a poorly guarded forward operating base in the Shahjoy District of Afghanistan.
While there, a suicide bomber in a Toyota pickup swerved into the base and detonated a load of explosives. Two of Eisenhauer's friends were killed, one of whom he watched die before a medical helicopter could reach them.
The war scene descriptions during the hearing by fellow soldiers serving with Josh were so graphic and in concert that the hearing board and prosecutor asked to not have any more witnesses. The prosecutor stipulated that Joshua had PTSD and had served on two horrible deployments. Joshua’s attorney reduced the scope of the questions so that attendees didn’t get PTSD from hearing such graphic details.
If they had this soldier redeployed fully aware of his PTSD conditions then the soldier should receive an Honarable Discharge and not General. This places a stigma on him for the rest of his life.
5.56mm
The aricle is very well written and I easily imagined myself in his place
Can someone explain how servicemen who saw worse over longer periods during WWI, WWII, Korea, and Viet Nam, with easier access to weapons did not engage in this behavior?
The Marines I knew from Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and particularly Korea saw much worse, lost much more, often suffered greater psychological damage, could buy firearms and ammo at the local hardware store yet did not do this stuff. What is the difference?
(And don’t jump on me. I respect these guys and I do not mean to downgrade their experiences, but their reactions are different from past generations.)
I think that older generations you mentioned had faith to guide them. They also had a first world nation in which to return.
“I think that older generations you mentioned had faith to guide them. They also had a first world nation in which to return.”
*****************
Bingo!
+1
In a word, psych meds.
There were no psych meds in WWII.
What you don’t hear about, though, is WWII PTSD, because it wasn’t a phrase yet. Bit they went through it just the same, and so did their families and kids from them.
Also it wasn’t worse in WWII. It was the same.
War is war is war.
Yes they did... you are correct, my father in law had issues for many years after the war then after a while he got to where he was day today fine for several decades, after being a d-day veteran and Operation Market Garden veteran in the glider infantry. Then the Second Gulf War second Iraq War happened and it was on the news nonstop he couldn’t stop watching it and it really messed him up and meet him an angry angry old man. It really changed him when it brought all those memories back and God bless him he never shot up anybody but I can assure everyone he had the same issues they just called it shell shock in world war 2
Some of them did.
But incidents from sixty years ago are a little hard to find records of today.
Also, look at how small a percentage of those with PTSD ever have such an incident.
The frequency of PTSD resulting in something like this is overblown. PTSD is also not necessarily permanent. The undealt with incidents can be reduced to memories with treatment.
Regarding a second deployment, the man’s memories may have been buried deeper and not effecting him as much when he was younger. Typically the minds ability to repress things degrades as one ages, usually in one’s thirties or forties.
When I returned to the world, most older adult males were veterans.
When a coworker stepped out from a dark stairwell, and I had him by the throat; they did NOT call the cops.
They helped me and were generous to me.
The CEO of the corporation that employed me, was always helpful to me, we only ever spoke of work issues.
Until I saw his obituary, I never new he was a Navy officer of some distinction, I ask around and they said, oh yes, that he took care of me. And I did well.
When I retired, there was one veteran left in the building!
It helps to be among your own kind.
Different people react in different ways. There were guys that cracked from those wars when they came back home and it either wasn’t reported or made very little news. In today’s report immediately environment information is available instantly.
Having grown up in the depression, these men and women from WWII knew that sometimes life deals you a bad hand and you have to suck it up and do the best you can. IOW, they’d lived through bad times and got through it and they did their best to get through PTSD. Today’s kids have very few challenges growing up and aren’t used to bad times. They all had indoor plumbing and a roof over their heads and possibly some video games. I hope this young man gets the help he needs, he’s done more than his share for his country.
I believe it is a question of survival. We lost so many more in those wars and now they come home. Not many at all will respond as Eisenhauer because his case is severe. PTS has many levels and each case is unique because not all have all symptoms. Eisenhauer may also be suffering from a TBI which can be correlated with PTS but not always.
PTS is also deepened with each new trauma. Most times there is little or no time for recuperation. Meds are over prescribed, too. The whole system is a mess.
The night of the event was also unique in that the firemen broke in his door and where thumping around his house. I wonder how many people wouldn’t have drawn a home weapon upon hearing that.
Eisenhauer’s first tour to Helmand was 15 months long. Marine’s tours are 7 months. In WW2 they were 4 years and didn’t come home for leave plus they were shipped home which took a month.
Your post did make me wonder about the difference in the level of stress in our lifestyles during those times.
I agree. This soldier was in the worst of the worst fighting on a daily basis. He was one of the early ones to go into Tora Bora after Bin Laden. I was with him and his special forces friends in the hospital ER after he was shot 4 times, twice in the face. I’ve never seen such a closely bonded group in my life. Even closer than brothers.
He is now in prison for 10 to 18 years as the county court and judicial system sucks.
Joshua spent over three years in jail just waiting for a hearing during which time he had no treatment for his PTSD.
“Can someone explain how servicemen who saw worse over longer periods during WWI, WWII, Korea, and Viet Nam, with easier access to weapons did not engage in this behavior?”
Yes, I can explain it in detail. I did a presentation in the Naval Intelligence Building for a group in 2002 on this topic. I explained that the PTSD would be worse and it would be more difficult to get the men to follow orders in the upcoming war. It has to do with a state of consciousness as to whether a soldier was “just following orders” or “takes personal responsibility” for their actions.
When they softened boot camp and feminized the military it took away the focus.
“I think that older generations you mentioned had faith to guide them. They also had a first world nation in which to return.”
*****************
Bingo!
+1
Yes, it was more than just faith. But that is the key. If a person thinks that they are in charge, they don’t follow orders as their personal value judgments over rides the command structure and they take personal responsibility for their actions, thus the personal consequences are more severe.
Bottom line, when people think they are God it is a tough road to travel.
In a word, psych meds.
Yes, that too.
They give a 180 day supply of benzos and send them into combat.
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