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MSG Stankovich Has it right in more ways than one. "We can’t take all of our battle hardened Soldiers and place them in a jar that says “break glass in case of war.”
Veterans are a real and present thing one which cannot be ignored. We have issues, we have been places and done things that you have no idea of and honestly you are better off not knowing. We have done those things and gone to those places so that you wouldn't have to. This is the Task, Honor and Privilege that we took up when we raised our right hand and swore to protect our country and its people... but what now? Wars are winding down, Soldiers are coming home. The days of Ticker Tape Parades are long past us and honestly most of us don't want that sort of publicity and recognition. We want to go home, kiss our wife and kids and go back to a normal life. The unfortunate fact is that for a great many of us setting just under the surface of this desire for a “Normal Life” lies a boiling torrent of emotion, memory, trauma and pain that will eventually surface. For some it comes quick for some it takes months or years to manifest. The degree in which it manifests varies from person to person but it is never pleasant. What do we do with these Soldiers, Sailors, Marines and Airmen? With wars and Warriors past society turned a blind eye and pretended that everything was fine. “Pretend it isn’t there and eventually it will go away” is not going to work this time (Not that it really worked before). There are far too many of us to ignore, PTSD is not Weakness, it is not a Flaw, it is our minds and our bodies trying to cope with things that we were not designed to experience. Too many times I have seen soldiers make it home alive and then lose the fight right here at home.
Years ago I was the Assistant Demobilization Officer at an Army MOBE Site (I was a National Guard Soldier working at a MOBE Stations as a Civilian). My job was to be there when a group of soldiers got home and walk them through the “Reverse SRP” process. One incident stays with me and keeps me vigilant. I will never forget… we had a large group of MPs come home. These guys were National Guard Soldiers, they had been attached to an active Duty BCT and had been chewed up and spit out from day one. They lost 2/3 of their original deploying unit to injury and death. When they came in there was a big push to get them through the process and back to home station so that they could be reunited with their families. However as I spent time with them over the next few days I learned that there were several that were having a really hard time. I brought this up in briefings with their leadership and was told “We will take care of them at home station, we all go home together”. I understood this sentiment but one young soldier stood out to me and I really pushed to have him stay and be further evaluated but again I was told “We will take care of them at home station, we all go home together”. This particular young soldier had been one of the original unit he had made it through the entire deployment, he had some bumps and bruises but on the outside he appeared to have come through in one piece. The second night they were there I took him and a few other young troops out for dinner and spent hours talking to him. I learned that not only had he watched many of his friends get hurt and die in the Sand Box but had also endured a huge personal tragedy. His Father, Mother and only sibling (baby sister) had been killed a few months earlier in a car accident. He had been going to college and living at home when he left. Coming home now he had no home to go to no family to welcome him. Over the next 2 weeks I spent a lot of time with him I called his situation out to both my command and his and again I was told “We will take care of them at home station, we all go home together”. I was assured by everyone that he would be fine. So I loaded him on a plane with his fellow soldiers and sent him home. Two weeks later I was called into my commander’s office and was informed that this young man had killed himself. He had gone to home station, he had sat through the speeches, briefings celebrations and then when everyone went off to their families and homes he took a taxi to a hotel. He was given 3 months before he had to report back to his unit for drill and that was the last anyone talked to him or heard from him. One night the walls closed in, the sadness, fear, loneliness took over and this young man took his own life.
Soldiers, NCOs, Officers, Keep your eyes and ears open. Know your soldiers. Take the time to KNOW them. It is the job of every one of us not to allow tragedies like the one I have described to happen again. Do your resiliency training take it serious take it to heart.
Take advantage of the training, groups, organizations and resources out there. Get educated, get smart make sure that when you are faced with situations like this, whether it be your own personal issue or a fellow soldier, you know what to do and where to go so that Tragedies like the one above does not happen again.
SGT Elihu Allen
US Army
Veterans are a real and present thing one which cannot be ignored. We have issues, we have been places and done things that you have no idea of and honestly you are better off not knowing. We have done those things and gone to those places so that you wouldn't have to. This is the Task, Honor and Privilege that we took up when we raised our right hand and swore to protect our country and its people... but what now? Wars are winding down, Soldiers are coming home. The days of Ticker Tape Parades are long past us and honestly most of us don't want that sort of publicity and recognition. We want to go home, kiss our wife and kids and go back to a normal life. The unfortunate fact is that for a great many of us setting just under the surface of this desire for a “Normal Life” lies a boiling torrent of emotion, memory, trauma and pain that will eventually surface. For some it comes quick for some it takes months or years to manifest. The degree in which it manifests varies from person to person but it is never pleasant. What do we do with these Soldiers, Sailors, Marines and Airmen? With wars and Warriors past society turned a blind eye and pretended that everything was fine. “Pretend it isn’t there and eventually it will go away” is not going to work this time (Not that it really worked before). There are far too many of us to ignore, PTSD is not Weakness, it is not a Flaw, it is our minds and our bodies trying to cope with things that we were not designed to experience. Too many times I have seen soldiers make it home alive and then lose the fight right here at home.
Years ago I was the Assistant Demobilization Officer at an Army MOBE Site (I was a National Guard Soldier working at a MOBE Stations as a Civilian). My job was to be there when a group of soldiers got home and walk them through the “Reverse SRP” process. One incident stays with me and keeps me vigilant. I will never forget… we had a large group of MPs come home. These guys were National Guard Soldiers, they had been attached to an active Duty BCT and had been chewed up and spit out from day one. They lost 2/3 of their original deploying unit to injury and death. When they came in there was a big push to get them through the process and back to home station so that they could be reunited with their families. However as I spent time with them over the next few days I learned that there were several that were having a really hard time. I brought this up in briefings with their leadership and was told “We will take care of them at home station, we all go home together”. I understood this sentiment but one young soldier stood out to me and I really pushed to have him stay and be further evaluated but again I was told “We will take care of them at home station, we all go home together”. This particular young soldier had been one of the original unit he had made it through the entire deployment, he had some bumps and bruises but on the outside he appeared to have come through in one piece. The second night they were there I took him and a few other young troops out for dinner and spent hours talking to him. I learned that not only had he watched many of his friends get hurt and die in the Sand Box but had also endured a huge personal tragedy. His Father, Mother and only sibling (baby sister) had been killed a few months earlier in a car accident. He had been going to college and living at home when he left. Coming home now he had no home to go to no family to welcome him. Over the next 2 weeks I spent a lot of time with him I called his situation out to both my command and his and again I was told “We will take care of them at home station, we all go home together”. I was assured by everyone that he would be fine. So I loaded him on a plane with his fellow soldiers and sent him home. Two weeks later I was called into my commander’s office and was informed that this young man had killed himself. He had gone to home station, he had sat through the speeches, briefings celebrations and then when everyone went off to their families and homes he took a taxi to a hotel. He was given 3 months before he had to report back to his unit for drill and that was the last anyone talked to him or heard from him. One night the walls closed in, the sadness, fear, loneliness took over and this young man took his own life.
Soldiers, NCOs, Officers, Keep your eyes and ears open. Know your soldiers. Take the time to KNOW them. It is the job of every one of us not to allow tragedies like the one I have described to happen again. Do your resiliency training take it serious take it to heart.
Take advantage of the training, groups, organizations and resources out there. Get educated, get smart make sure that when you are faced with situations like this, whether it be your own personal issue or a fellow soldier, you know what to do and where to go so that Tragedies like the one above does not happen again.
SGT Elihu Allen
US Army
Resiliency
PTSD
Disabled Veterans
Posted >1 y ago
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SGT(P) (Join to see), thanks for sharing that powerful story. It appears to have had an incredible impact on you.
I want you - and the rest of the RallyPoint members - to be aware of our organization, Project Sanctuary, that deals with the very issues you mentioned in your post. Our mantra is "Where Military Families Reconnect," and we mean it! We help troops, like the young MP you mentioned, deal with the stresses of deployment, PTS/D, etc. Of the nearly 500 families that have participated in our program, we've had ZERO suicides.
Please, use us as a valuable resource: http://www.projectsanctuary.us.
I want you - and the rest of the RallyPoint members - to be aware of our organization, Project Sanctuary, that deals with the very issues you mentioned in your post. Our mantra is "Where Military Families Reconnect," and we mean it! We help troops, like the young MP you mentioned, deal with the stresses of deployment, PTS/D, etc. Of the nearly 500 families that have participated in our program, we've had ZERO suicides.
Please, use us as a valuable resource: http://www.projectsanctuary.us.
Home page for the Project Sanctuary website
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SGT(P) (Join to see)
that is an outstanding resource thank you very much for sharing this. I will add this to my list of resources. I wanted to also link you in with a local organization here in SC that does much the same thing. http://www.hiddenwounds.org
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That is one of the problem I saw up close while I was in the 82nd at least in my platoon. Not so much in my squad, but the other two rifle squads, the Squad Leaders both had new troopers who had wife and one with a kid. Both seemed to care less to needs and issues of their troop, or to offer advice to their Team Leader to help them out so they could help their troop. In fact, both of these two who were E-6, would sit around and openly make fun of both of them, in formation and in the barracks, and company area all the time. Which yeah, I understand it was the trooper problem, not their problem, but don't make it issue harder on them, but spreading the word to rest of the platoon. It was none of business what was going on with them. If they had wanted to share, that was up to them. Beside in Line Company, it was hard enough to keep anything like that private, because someone would find out and say something about it sooner or later, it didn't need to be one of their supervisors.
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