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Posted on 04/05/2002 5:59:18 AM PST by Stand Watch Listen
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba - Prisoners have spit on their soldier guards. Some scream and throw water at them. At first, the terrorism suspects ate better than the soldiers.And some U.S. forces are angry.
So much, in fact, that a special Navy psychiatric team is available to counsel the estimated 1,000 Marines, soldiers and sailors about their feelings over their sudden roles at this nascent offshore U.S. detention center. The team is on watch for alcoholism, depression and signs that the stress of the work could erupt unexpectedly, perhaps in violence at home.
Moreover, mental health workers have decided to debrief each and every troop that has been associated with the prison compound called Camp X-Ray. They will let the forces ''ventilate'' for as long as they wish before they leave the remote base on southeast Cuba.
''Many of them feel the detainees are being treated better than they are,'' said Cmdr. Karen Daly, a Navy psychiatrist and officer-in-charge of the Special Psychiatric Rapid Intervention Team that has begun making rounds at Camp X-Ray and the Navy's state-of-the-art tent hospital.
Expanded Role
SPRINT's original mission was to help commanders cope with the five diagnosed psychiatric disorders among the prisoners, which medical officers candidly admit came as a surprise. But, recognizing that some emotions are still raw over the terrible toll of Sept. 11, they swiftly expanded their role to help troops recognize their feelings so they don't later explode with seemingly inexplicable rage -- at their work or their families.
''I think it's healthy for them to be angry and for them to be aware of their anger,'' Daly said. ``They are feelings, and as long as they don't get in the way of doing their job, that's OK.''
Emotions are a touchy subject for men and women in uniform. Officially, the military culture embraces the concept of mental healthcare. But other parts of military culture teach people to button up their emotions and do their jobs. Daly said she learned since coming to the base that some Marines refer to psychiatrists as ''wizards'' and caution each other, ``Never talk to a wizard.''
Of special concern to commanders are the reservists. More than half of Camp X-Ray's guards were mobilized from Iowa and Missouri for the prison camp project. They include salesmen and car mechanics, police officers and civilian prison guards.
Uprooted from daily routines and crises -- their jobs, family and financial problems -- they have found themselves on an isolated base, at times living in harsh conditions, working nearly nonstop, eating field rations from plastic packages and showering with a garden hose.
Meantime, commanders have been preoccupied with the care and feeding of the 300 suspected members of the Taliban militia and al Qaeda international terror network. The overall goal of the program is to make the captives fit and content enough to cooperate with their interrogators -- and provide sound intelligence for the war on terror.
So at a tent hospital, U.S. officers boast that the captives get the same high-quality care as U.S. troops and their dependent family members.
''This has been a tough thing for some people to swallow emotionally,'' said Navy Cmdr. Jamie Carroll, the head nurse treating the terror suspects.
So far, though, the commander reports that medical workers have behaved like professionals -- and she is not worried. ``We have things in place.''
`More Dangerous'
Still, the training is stressful.
''We see these people as being more dangerous than people on Death Row,'' said Capt. Darryl Sides, who cautions his soldiers that the captives are dangerous and potentially suicidal fanatics. ``They don't have the same values as we Americans do.''
For a time, said Marine Lance Cpl. Nathan Howell, 21, of San Jose, Calif., the prisoners lived better than their guards, including himself, a watchtower guard at Camp X-Ray. The prisoners had two hot meals a day plus a cold lunch while the Marines and Army Military Police were eating field rations. And prisoners had showers at Camp X-Ray weeks before military members got theirs at a rugged outpost at adjacent Freedom Heights.
''They did those atrocities to us -- and we're treating them like royalty,'' said Howell, who spent two hours, alone, on a recent Sunday bowling 16 straight games at a base bowling alley.
Is he angry? No, he replied, because ``they gave us sessions on how to handle our anger when we got here.''
Of course, since Islam is a form of mass psychosis, the al-Qaeda didn't realize they had five bonafide psychotics in their ranks.
Well, compare what you just read in the post and recall all the concern from the liberal establishment over these dirt bags. Doesn't it remind you of the US Justice System, Prisons, courts, schools, Quotas, race relations? Almost everything they touch turns SOUR! Wake up America!
Sometimes forgiveness is easier to obtain than permission.
It wouldn't surprise me if it was discovered that Islam causes people who grow up under it to suffer from five psychiatric disorders.
I don't see why prison guards or soldiers should be "used to this sort of nastiness."
Guillotines cost practically nothing to make and use up very little space. They are quick and -- relatively -- painless. Plus, organs can be harvested.
Mark W.
They are lucky it was just water.
This is ths story in most of the prisons across the country.
And American death row prisoners do? - geesh..
I was involved in two deployments of this team. The first was when the Coast Guard Cutter Blackthorn struck an oil tanker in Tampa Bay. The cutter was homeported out of Galveston Bay, Texas and half our team deployed to the families of the dead and survivors there and the other half deployed to the Tampa area in support of the Coasties on that end of the incident.
The second incident that I deployed on was about a year later when a Coast Guard H3 helicopter on a search and rescue went down in Prince William Sound in the Gulf of Alaska. Most of the team deployed to the base at Kodiak but I was sent to Cordova where they had a small S&R hangar. I was fortunate to fly with the search team in another H3 looking for survivors in extraordinarily poor conditions with ceiling about 300 feet, 40 knott winds and 15 foot seas. We managed to locate one deceased airman washed up on a small rocky beach on a remote island. Because he was so water logged and heavy, the radioman that was hoisted to the beach couldn't load him on the litter. I was the only expendable crew person at that time and was hoisted down 150 feet in a "horse collar" device during my first ever ride in a helicopter. They dropped me into the surf and we managed together to recover the body. The pilot's hover under those conditions was nothing short of miraculous and lasted for 60 minutes with the tail rotor no more than 20 feet from a sheer rock wall. The next day we went out again searching and had a fire in the cockpit. Ah......sweet memories.
At any rate it's interesting to see the concept of the SPRINT still alive. I had wanted to deploy after the return of the Iranian hostages but all the senior guys sucked up that job.
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