Posted on 11/15/2007 1:00:43 PM PST by rightalien
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- A soldier who served two combat tours in Iraq was arrested Wednesday for leaving the Army without permission more than a year ago to seek treatment for post traumatic stress disorder.
At a news conference hours before his arrest, Sgt. Brad Gaskins said he left the base in August 2006 because the Army wasn't providing effective treatment after he was diagnosed with PTSD and severe depression.
"They just don't have the resources to handle it, but that's not my fault," Gaskins said.
Tod Ensign, an attorney with Citizen Soldier, a GI rights group that is representing Gaskins, said the case is part of a "coming tsunami" of mental health problems involving Iraq and Afghanistan vets.
Last month, the Veterans Administration said more than 100,000 soldiers were being treated for mental health problems, and half of those specifically for PTSD.
Gaskins, 25, of East Orange, N.J., was taken into custody at a Watertown cafe by civilian police officers from Fort Drum and two local police officers, Ensign said. The lawyer said he had been on the phone with military prosecutors working out the details of Gaskins' surrender when the soldier was arrested.
Fort Drum spokesman Ben Abel said after a soldier is AWOL for more than 30 days he becomes classified as a deserter and a federal arrest warrant is issued. He said he was unaware of the specifics of Gaskins' case and declined to comment on it.
An eight-year Army veteran, Gaskins served two tours in Iraq and a peacekeeping tour in Kosovo. He said his mental health began deteriorating during his second tour in Iraq, which began in June 2005, when his job was to conduct road searches and locate improvised explosive devices.
He said after returning to Fort Drum in February 2006, he began suffering flashbacks and nightmares, headaches, sleeplessness, weight loss and mood swings that took him from depression to irrational rages. Military doctors sent him to the Samaritan Medical Center in Watertown, where he spent two weeks and was diagnosed with PTSD. When he later asked his commanders about returning to Samaritan, they told him it would delay any chance he had at obtaining a medical release, Gaskins said.
At the time, the Fort Drum mental health facility had a staff of a dozen caring for approximately 17,000 troops, Ensign said.
Gaskins said that because he had been unable to get proper help, he requested a two-week leave and went home to New Jersey, where he has been living since.
The base has expanded its mental health facility staff to 31 in the past year, with plans to add another 17 staffers, Abel said. "Is there a need for more -- yes," he said.
Gaskins said he hasn't been able to get a job because of his PTSD, and that he and his wife have separated. He said he has only supervised visitation rights with his two children.
Citizen Soldier previously represented Spc. Eugene Cherry, another Fort Drum soldier who had faced a court-martial and a bad conduct discharge after going AWOL to get treatment. The Army softened its stance and gave Cherry a general discharge in July.
He went AWOL because he couldn’t get treatment?
While he was AWOL did he get treatment?
If not, his story is BS and she should be held accountable.
An eight-year Army veteran, Gaskins served two tours in Iraq and a peacekeeping tour in Kosovo. He said his mental health began deteriorating during his second tour in Iraq, which began in June 2005, when his job was to conduct road searches and locate improvised explosive devices
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He certainly didn’t have a “desk job”.
Our troops and vets deserve the best....If elected I would use Hillary’s approach and “take it from” the welfare bums/illegals and give it to our military.
IED (and UXB) guys tend, by nature, to be half-ass crazy, or get that way shortly.
I tend to believe he legitimately went crazy, but I tend to always believe the soldier.
The article predictably makes out the Army as the bad guys hurting the poor soldier. I seriously hope this soldier has problems and wasn’t just looking for a way out.
A liberal antiwar group
It’s simple. Things like PTSD are used as excuses. They are rallying points for the antiwar pundit who wants to portray the soldier as a victim, when they are not portraying them as evil and bad or stupid. PTSD is a BS excuse used by soldiers even in the past who commit heinous crimes and then quickly throw their hands in the air screaming “PTSD.” ***The affirmative defense.***
Bottom line, the guy is a deserter. The Army didn’t cross their “t”s and dot their “i”s, so he’ll walk free under the bogus justification of PTSD. Like anyone who refuses to go, the antiwar loony bin will rally around him. Usually people like this are simply scumbags.
Example: Rodney King, who has been picked up for drugs on three incidents, wife beating, indecent exposure, and in 2003 another DWI again, since is infamous beating by the police (where he alleges he didn’t resist arrest). People like this usually have a pattern of misconduct and it follows them even after this episode of cowardice. They simply have poor character. Mr. King was the rallying point of the black activist crowd, and this Cherry is a rallying point for the antiwar crowd, the character of such people is usually poor in either case.
“An eight-year Army veteran, Gaskins served two tours in Iraq and a peacekeeping tour in Kosovo”
Eight years and an E-4 (In today’s Army)? That says something. Average time to E-5 is about five years and if someone has any talent and is serving in a branch like the Infantry, that can be significantly less. We’re not hearing it because it does not fit into the antiwar agenda’s picture and they are the ones tooting their horn right now, but if you were to dig, you’d find out this guy was a screwup, long before he went to Iraq.
[Cortisol is a hormone that scientists associate with stress as well as chronic mood disorders. During times of stress, cortisol levels rise and then subside as the stress subsides. If stress is chronic or if a chronic mood disorder (anxiety, depression) is present, increased cortisol levels may indicate that the brain has become resistant to cortisol’s effects, scientists believe.
[One may wonder why, then, people with PTSD or the risk of developing PTSD would have lower cortisol levels. The VAMC research group theorizes that with PTSD, the brain may become hypersensitive to the effects of cortisol. The same area of the brain which may resist cortisol in people with chronic mood disorders, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, appears to work differently in people with PTSD or the risk of having PTSD.]
http://panicdisorder.about.com/cs/ptsdbeyond/a/cortisolptsd.htm
He didn't do the right thing when he left his unit. But after two combat tours he's earned some respect and consideration.
I hope he'll get the help he needs.
But, did he seek mental health treatment outside The Army?
I respect him for his service, but you can’t just walk away.
And you didn’t even bother to answer the question.
Did he seek treatment outside The Army?
If he did, and it’s a known fact that The Army is lacking in the specific area, then I’m inclined to “cut the guy some slack.”
I did 16 years active and reserve and nobody was allowed to just walk away.
Sorry, but that’s how it works, “hero”.
He seems to have sought legal-health treatment with the Navy, via attorney Tod Ensign.
I agree.
I’m not the guy talking about summary executions for “desertion”.
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