A non-SF interrogator attached to an ODA in 10th SFG freaks out, after being in country for three days, and seeing one dead Iraqi.
Not exactly Silver Star material.
I had the opportunity to work with some 10th Group guys a few months ago, and jokingly asked my collegues about 'their boy Pogany'. A few of them refered to him as 'he who shall not be named', and didn't care to elaborate. I did meet one guy who had to babysit Pogany after his breakdown, but before they shipped him home, and he had nothing good to say. I distinctly got the impression that he wasn't thought highly of before his episode, and his actions weren't out of character (except in intensity).
As a support guy, I'm used to the Green Berets not taking anyone without the tab seriously. At first, that is. If you prove competent at your job, motivated, tough and at least moderately skilled with a weapon, you'll become the ODAs lost kid brother. If you're incompetent, lazy, risk averse, or seriously lacking in weapons handling skill, you'll not fit in, and in their eyes ruin the reputation of your self, detachment, MOS, and possibly your entire branch.
So, I understand Pogany's position of having to work with a pack of snake eating killers that will initially treat you like a red headed step child with leprosy. The first time is pretty intimidating.
Now, it is possible that the drug (which God knows how many hundreds of thousands of people take on a weekly basis) did affect him. Given the already thin line of trust that existed, the ODA could have just assumed that he was a dirtbag, and cast him off.
Still, I can't shake the impression that this guy is a dirtbag, and is looking for an out. I mainly think that because of his actions after he returned home and came off the meds. An SF Group does not lack for medical personnel, so it strikes me as odd that this wouldn't have been noticed or thought of until now. If he only just now decided to go with 'the meds made me do it' angle, what was his reason for denying the cowardice charge before.
His actions, under what I would basically call negligible stress levels, are inexcusable. He simply did not see or experience enough for a person in his line of work to suffer the kind of breakdown he claims. Period. Yet he ran to the press to cry foul. Without any mitigating circumstances, there's no story: he's a coward. Now, months later, he seems to have found an excuse, but that doesn't explain why he thought he was innocent before.
So, maybe the meds did make him do it. I suppose it is possible. I still suspect that he's just another intel guy who probably didn't belong in the Army, much less in Group, and who failed badly when confronted with reality.
I read about his story about a month ago (either in Esquire or GQ). Apparently Pogany latched on to the medical condition excuse way after the fact. On the other hand, it did seem like the Army over-reacted--they likely don't have time for hand-holding or use for people who need it. In any case, I did not come away from that article with a sympathetic feeling for the guy (even though the author tried to lead the reader in that direction).
Doesn't help the SF cause when two of the witnesses on the team aren't around to testify...Andrew keeps forgetting to tell the media that he got out of going to Iraq on the first rotation in February claiming marital problems and was trying to get out of going on the second rotation.
You can only rule out an adverse drug reaction by eliminating the drug. I know a doctor who didn't recognize an adverse drug reaction in himself until months after he stopped taking the drug which can effect the nervous system. It was not the typical and most worrisome of the drugs possible adverse effects, and other doctors were unable to recognize it either.