Posted on Feb 17, 2016
SSG(P) Section Chief
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Even though PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) can happen from anything. I often hear of other soldiers saying that unless you have been in combat you cannot have PTSD. As a 14T I can tell you that this is possible even though PATRIOT rarely sees combat. I also know of a soldier who wakes up thinking she thinks she missed formation over 20 years ago. What are your opinions.
Edited 10 y ago
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Responses: 13
Cpl Chad Perry
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You don't have to be in combat to get PTSD. My brother in law was also a marine. He was a bullet catcher. In 94 both of our units were training in 29 palms, and during a live fire exercise one of his friends, who was a DRAGON gunner got confused about what color star cluster was his signal to stand up and fire his missile. He stood up in his hole too soon and an M60 took his head off. My brother in law still has nightmares and hallucinations about it to this day. Training accidents can be just as bad.
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1stSgt Eugene Harless
1stSgt Eugene Harless
10 y
Cpl Chad Perry - message me his name... I'm talking to the Platoon sgt who was there as we speak.
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Cpl Chad Perry
Cpl Chad Perry
10 y
I know I was off on what really happened. It was 22 years ago and all I know is what my brother in law said and I also remember some of what my leaders told us right after it happened. My brother in law and I were really close friends in high school before we joined the Marines, and I could tell right away when I saw him afterwards he was pretty shaken up. He said the Marine that was killed was a friend and when he saw that Marine laying there it hit him pretty hard. From that day on I could definitely tell there was something wrong. He's been a totally different person since he got out of the Marines.
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Cpl Chad Perry
Cpl Chad Perry
10 y
Dan Solomon
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1stSgt Eugene Harless
1stSgt Eugene Harless
10 y
Cpl Chad Perry - I talked to some people who were on site when this happened. Shoot me an email at [login to see] .
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COL Mike Humphrey
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You do not have to be in combat to have PTSD. People can have PTSD from being involved or witnessing a traumatic event.
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SMSgt Lawrence McCarter
SMSgt Lawrence McCarter
9 y
True, and not everyone handles stress in the same way and traumatic events aren't just limited to the battlefield. Although I'm a Viet Nam Veteran and have seen plenty of things no human being should have to see I don 't suffer from PTSD Myself. I look though not only at that experience but as a civilian Police Officer responding to fatal traffic accidents, other crime scenes with fatal gunshot wounds, knives, You name it. the exposure is still there. I've been able to handle it but My own Father told Me He couldn't handle the things I deal with. Not everyone can and many have dealt with things far worse than I have, although how the stress shows itself, well there are a lot of ways and I'm no expert in the subject.
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LTC Professor Of Military Science / Department Chair
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Is the question has PTSD become to politicized? Or is the question is PTSD only caused by those who've been in combat?
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LTC Professor Of Military Science / Department Chair
LTC (Join to see)
10 y
If it's whether or not you have to be in combat for PTSD - then I would have those people sit in a room full of First Responders, crime/rape victims, and anyone else who suffered through traumatic experiences. Just because PTSD is prevalent in our community due to the last 15+ years of conflict and previous conflicts - doesn't mean we have a monopoly on PTSD and we get to say you can only get PTSD if you were in a knock 'em down and out firefight.

If it's if it's become to politicized - then no. PTSD can not gain enough attention within the media/government in my opinion - as treatment needs to continue to get better, the procedure on how to find out if you have PTSD needs to improve - just the overall way we deal and treat PTSD and those of us who have it needs to improve.
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Does anyone feel like PTSD has become a little too political about what you have done?
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MSG John Melville
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I did not deploy to the sand. I retired from the army in January 2001 and was a retiree recall from 2003-2005 at the Casualty and Memorial Affairs Operations Center in Alexandria, VA. I completed over 250 WIA notifications, saw the dead and pieces thereof, and saw field gear with pieces of human remains on them. So, the VA said that I did not qualify for PTSD, though I had nightmares. The stress was so bad in casualty operations that we had a counselor from the Pentagon Stress Management Team and a chaplain assigned to us. So, PTSD is what it is and don't let anyone tell you what it can't be.
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CPT Mark Gonzalez
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Normal injuries are already categorized as service connected, deployment or combat related, pre-existing etc. Apply the same logic to PTSD and it isn't controversial as anyone can get PTSD, but but the classification may matter to some.
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Lt Col Scott Shuttleworth
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I absolutely abhor those who state PTSD is only for those in combat. ABSOULUTLEY not true. I had a friend that was killed in an accidental gun incident by his brother. He was killed and his brother that shot him, still after 30 plus years, has reoccurring nightmares, sweats, and various triggers. Yes combat is a horrible wretched thing and it is definitely provides its higher than average number of PTSD cases but it isn't just combat...there are too may situations that could give a person PTSD.
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SGT Steven Eugene Kuhn MBA
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I feel PTSD is to widely diagnosed and that it is often misdiagnosed, and is often more of a survivor guilt, or feeling inadequate for not going down range.
I have a buddy who never saw combat, friends of his died on a range accident a year after he ETS'ed and he is a mess, it happened over 20 years ago. He talks about it every day, wears memorial shirts, the army t-shirts and pins, hats all the time.
I highly believe that we program somethings into our heads as a way to cover up the feelings of inadequacy some feel for not going down range. It is hard to believe that more PTSD is diagnosed by non-combat vets as there is in combat vets. That leads me to underscore my belief that it is truly a way of trying to subconsciously justifying the feelings of inadequacy...which is needless.
There are these types of feeling for those who went downrange and did not shoot a round, then those who shot but did not get shot at, then those who did it all bit did not get wounded, then those who got wounded but never actually fought and so on. There are 1000s of combinations where we as military personnel feel inadequate when it comes to "being there, doing that".
I mean no disrespect to anyone, people react to different things in different ways but this victim, entitlement attitude our country forces down out necks from childhood on now is sickening and debilitating to our nation.
I know a woman who gets raped is probably screwed up for life but is that PTSD? Where did the acronym come from? When was it first diagnosed and why then did it simply be blanket used for all trauma?
I was diagnose with PTSD n 93 after ODS and was not told, so I just thought I was screwed up, I only found out when I actually read my files in 2011 and it made me feel like I had an answer to my situation, but is it an answer?
Not usually, it is sometimes a label, a label that some wear as a personality. Understandably becasue when you get out of the military, you will never have that again and for many, the military experience is the most exciting but also most defining time of their life, and using the label PTSD connects one forever to those days of meaning of mission...
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LTC John Shaw
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We have personnel who have gone through much more stressful events than many. I can see how an operator, marine or infantry who truly conducted Urban ops will resent others that had less stressful roles. However each person is different and stress tolerance is different, so many people will have symptoms even with out actual F2F combat
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CPT Tamara Brewer
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I have to say when I returned from Iraq, I never expected to have PTS. I was an HHC CO and a psychology major!
I was on a FOB north of Baghdad that took some IDF. No problems with this. I did venture out to help relieve a PL on mission since I was transpo and got caught in a crossfire with bullets flying by my head while on foot and a large explosion that I wasn't in the blast radius for.
I was also sexually harassed by a superior for a year of my deployment. After redeployment I thought it would stop but it didn't so I went to IG but after leave the proof I had was too old and the new harassment wasn't grievous enough.
All that to say, a report was not put up and so when the docs put PTSD on my record. My unit and the state didn't know why I had PTS.
I have physical issues that make me disabled, but if that were not the case, I would not let PTS keep me from working.
I've started and stopped and started my own business http://www.artnbrew.com since 2013. I do it when I can and keep doing my art and helping veterans with logos for their businesses to make them successful.
I think that PATRIOTS need to back off each other. Stop judging each other by your own experience. My Soldiers had/ have no clue unless they read this that I even went through those two horrible situations. Patriots are real people not the super heroes we expect them to be in combat. You each are elite in my eyes so treat each other as that. My two cents...plus a quarter.
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SSG(P) Section Chief
SSG(P) (Join to see)
10 y
CPT Tamara Brewer, thank you for sharing your story and responding. It really helps me understand peoples opinions on the matter when they comment.
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SPC(P) Jay Heenan
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Here is my two cents. You are correct, PTSD (which is now called PTS), can happen to anyone who experiences a traumatic event. That traumatic event can be completely different from one person to the next, which is why some people abuse that claim with the VA. As an example, I know I guy who "deployed" to Africa (Djibouti) and claimed PTS on his VA claim. I guess maybe he actually has it, but stories like this is why some question others. I am not sure if waking up thinking one missed formation is the type of traumatic event that the VA would consider on a PTS claim.
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