Thanks for your thoughtful and thought-provoking post. You write:
> OK... Here’s the question... Does this not reduce the Order of the Purple Heart into some sort of a “campaign ribbon”?
It certainly would if the PTSD weren’t clinical in nature, but rather something which everybody had. And I think what you’re saying is that it would be difficult to establish that the PTSD was clinical in nature. Which I acknowledge it well could be difficult.
> Do you see what I’m getting at? It’s not that PTSD sufferers are not injured. It’s more of a defense of the award.
I can accept that argument: the Purple Heart is for injuries where blood is shed or bones are broken.
With alot of mental illnesses, it is that way. If somebody has a broken arm, you can see that and say “I bet that hurt” because the injury is obvious. Similarly if they have lost a limb or gashed themselves open: the injury is obvious so it is easily acknowledged and treated.
But for the most part, mentally ill patients do not have obvious complaints: when you look at them they look normal, when you talk to them they can even look normal. They do not appear injured; however, their injuries are very real and often more serious in nature than somebody with a broken arm or missing limb. And they often go unacknowledged and untreated as a result.
If the Purple Heart isn’t the appropriate award for mental injuries, that’s OK. My question in return would be how best to recognize somebody who has been mentally injured during war time?
I don’t think the military has its head in the sand on this. They know that PTSD is real. Effectively dealing with it is the problem.
In WW1 they called it “Shell Shock” and though it was studied the soldiers affected carried the stigma. By WW2 it was officially called “Combat Fatigue” and units were rotated “off the line” after a prescribed interval if the situation permitted. Notice that I said “units”.
In Iraq we see repeated deployments of from 9 months to a year. This is new. It approaches the WW2 situation, but without the physical mortality rate, so the mental injuries are far more apparent.
The military will be dealing with this for the foreseeable future.
Maybe the best thing to do for someone who has had PTSD is to give them the treatment they need, a warm handshake and then let them get on with their lives? I am not a mental health professional, but I would think that the best treatment would be to get them on their feet and moving in the right direction and let them do the healing. I don't think a medal would help towards that end.