Thank you for posting.
I knew someone with PTSD. He said that he got very nervous being in crowds, because he could never be sure that someone wasn’t using the crowd as a cover from which to snipe at him.
For a lot of people, PTSD is the fear of being attacked, after having spent many months in a heightened state of awareness in a combat zone.
I’ve never before heard of PTSD being a reaction to observing or committing a war crime. Leave it to liberals to try to poison the perception of a real psychological issue that some troops experience after being in a combat environment.
PTSD is not limited to military personnel and veterans. It can happen to anyone as a result of any traumatic event.
Diane Feinstein,bitch extrodanare.
Hey Pappy, glad to see someone representing that hero. PTSD certainly has biochemical basis. A Veterans study from 2007 proved that the PTSD fraternal brother from a Viet Nam era combat fraternal brothers group had demonstrated about a 300% increased incidence of heart disease and cancer. No one is faking the cancer and heart disease in combat vets with PTSD.
One day at the office, one of my young co-workers asked me how it was that I served multiple tours in Vietnam as a combat infantryman and I didn’t get PTSD. My rather flippant answer was “I didn’t get PTSD in Vietnam, I gave it.”
However, this PTSD question made me wonder what PTSD is and what the symptoms are, so I did a little research on the subject and found that I did indeed possess symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) concerning a traumatic and very stressful incident that occurred during my last tour in Vietnam. I was a professional soldier when the traumatic incident occurred and had accumulated over six years in Vietnam engaged occasionally in close combat with a vicious and cunningly capable enemy, but the traumatic event was not as a result of close combat with this enemy.
One day when I was totally focused on closing with and destroying the enemy, something caught my eye, I looked around and found a new enemy had unexpectedly appeared behind me; it was the American people. The same Democrat Party who had originally sent me to Vietnam promising that, “We shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and success of liberty,” had now sided with the Communists I was fighting. They were parading in the streets of the United States under a Viet Cong flag, were quoting from Mao’s Red Book, and were spitting on and flinging insults at returning Vietnam Veterans.
Then, a Democrat led Congress cut off funding for the Vietnam War, American combat troops were withdrawn and we abandoned a valiant ally to their fate. I was ordered out of the country in 1972, and when I arrived at Travis Air Force Base, purposely in the dark of the night, I was advised to change out of my uniform and put on civilian clothing to avoid being attacked by the American people when I entered San Francisco. I was not at all surprised when a few decades later these same people elected a Marxist-Communist as President of what was once my country.
Yes, the deep, burning hatred I feel for the Democrat Party to this day could be diagnosed as a symptom of PTSD, and I assure you, every Vietnam Veteran I know feels the same way.
No one knows how they will react in a combat environment until they get there, and many vets found themselves doing things that they couldn't live with later. I assume this article is well meaning but I don't think it adds much of value to the discussion.
What about the battle seasoned Nurse who is frequently first on scene.
This time it happens to be the 1981 Iraqi embassy bombing, with 61 dead and 110 wounded.
Trying to triage the maze of mangled bodies amidst the stench of burning flesh.
What about that brave and dedicated Nurse, Maj. E?
Hmmm...Ms. Feinstein?
What did she do to “deserve” PTSD Senator?
The fact is Ms. Feinstein, Maj. E has done more to serve this country than you ever could, having campaigned and gained office off of the death of Harvey Milk!
This much cortisone to the brain stem generates near permanent changes to the wiring of the brain.
Nobody should mock the origin or effect this has on the individual. When you see the fear in their eyes, you know.
A PTSD vet cannot travel without a weapon. They cannot sleep without a weapon within reach. They check all the doors and windows twice every night.
And, if you ever want to be around somebody who's ready for imminent battle to the death, every moment of every day, look up a PTSD vet.
It's not just about flashbacks. It's about a nervous system locked into "flight or fight" mode continuously.
Thank you for posting this. I struggled with this BS for over 30 years. When I came back I was made to feel ashamed that I had served. We were betrayed. And not just by the politicians. It is no wonder that so many of the Vets of my generation ended up homeless and on self-destructive paths. Instead of being embraced, we were shunned. Not once have I ever heard one of these people ever apologize for the way we were treated. I served on the U.S.S. Coral Sea during Vietnam. The first time anyone ever thanked me for my service was in September 2004 when I was at a VA Facility and it was in the form of a card made by school children. I must confess it brought a tear to my eye. Sad to say, this is not the America that I grew up in. Sadly, we have become a nation of spoiled and clueless children who have no respect for anything. There are still many good souls among us. Thank you again.
I don’t like words that hide the truth. I don’t words that conceal reality. I don’t like euphemisms, or euphemistic language. And American English is loaded with euphemisms. Cause Americans have a lot of trouble dealing with reality. Americans have trouble facing the truth, so they invent the kind of a soft language to protest themselves from it, and it gets worse with every generation. For some reason, it just keeps getting worse.
I’ll give you an example of that. There’s a condition in combat. Most people know about it. It’s when a fighting person’s nervous system has been stressed to it’s absolute peak and maximum. Can’t take anymore input. The nervous system has either (click) snapped or is about to snap. In the first world war, that condition was called “shell shock”. Simple, honest, direct language. Two syllables, “shell shock.” Almost sounds like the guns themselves.
That was seventy years ago. Then a whole generation went by and the Second World War came along and very same combat condition was called “battle fatigue.” Four syllables now. Takes a little longer to say. Doesn’t seem to hurt as much. “Fatigue” is a nicer word than “shock”. “Shell shock!” “Battle fatigue.”
Then we had the war in Korea, 1950. Madison Avenue was riding high by that time, and the very same combat condition was called “operational exhaustion.” Hey, were up to eight syllables now! And the humanity has been squeezed completely out of the phrase. It’s totally sterile now. “Operational exhaustion.” Sounds like something that might happen to your car.
Then of course, came the war in Viet Nam, which has only been over for about sixteen or seventeen years, and thanks to the lies and deceits surrounding that war, I guess it’s no surprise that the very same condition was called “Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.” Still eight syllables, but we’ve added a hyphen! And the pain is completely buried under jargon. “Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.”
I’ll bet you if we’d of still been calling it “shell shock,” some of those Viet Nam veterans might have gotten the attention they needed at the time. I’ll betcha. I’ll betcha.
-George Carlin
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Now that it's sunk in, let it sink back out.
She may never have said it.
It may have come from a satiric website.
Doesn't anybody ever check these things out?