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"I have to wonder how many of the real veterans in this group were suffering from PTSD."

Kerry's group, the VVAW, INVENTED the concept of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. It's one of their proudest achievements.

(I'm not kidding.)

Mr. Kerry denies being present at the November 12-15, 1971, meeting in Kansas City of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and says he quit the group before the meeting. But according to the current head of Missouri Veterans for Kerry, Randy Barnes, Mr. Kerry,who was then 27,was at the meeting, voted against the plot, and then orally resigned from the organization.
Mr. Barnes was present as part of the Kansas City host chapter for the 1971 meeting and recounted the incident in a phone interview with The New York Sun this week.

In addition to Mr. Barnes’s recollection placing Mr. Kerry at the Kansas City meeting, another Vietnam veteran who attended the meeting, Terry Du-Bose, said that Mr. Kerry was there.

Was he or wasn't he?

Only his hairdresser knows for sure.

I don't doubt that they discovered the existence of the condition, but it is a very real syndrome, not limited to battle situations, and not really a syndrome, more of a mental disorder.

There are an inordinate number of Vietnam Vets living in Whatcom County, Washington, where we live. Many of the migrated here after the war because it is the last outpost of the continental US and very rural (or at least it was). My husband became active in the Vietnam Veterans organization here because of the great need of many of these veterans for help and friendship. I can tell you PTSD is very real.