Ed Brayton is a freelance writer and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
Remember this famous picture from the early days of the war in Iraq?
That soldier, an Army medic, was named Joseph Patrick Dwyer and that picture, taken in March 2003, made him famous as a symbol of heroism during war. He died last week of an overdose after returning from the war a very messed up person.
His mother said the military could have done more to help with post-traumatic stress. "He just couldn't get over the war," Maureen Dwyer said. "He just couldn't do it. Just wasn't Joseph. Joseph never came home."His wife, Matina, said: "He was just never the same when he came back, because of all the things he saw. ... He tried to seek treatment, but it didn't work."
Some details from the Military Times, cited in the AP article above:
On June 28, Dwyer, 31, died of an accidental overdose in his home in Pinehurst, N.C., after years of struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder. During that time, his marriage fell apart as he spiraled into substance abuse and depression. He found himself constantly struggling with law, even as friends, Veterans Affairs personnel and the Army tried to help him."Of course he was looked on as a hero here," said Capt. Floyd Thomas of the Pinehurst Police Department. Still, "we've been dealing with him for over a year."
The day he died, Dwyer apparently took pills and inhaled the fumes of an aerosol can in an act known as "huffing." Thomas said Dwyer then called a taxi company for a ride to the hospital...
When he returned from war after three months in Iraq, he developed the classic, treatable symptoms of PTSD. like so many other combat vets, he didn't seek help. In restaurants, he sat with his back to the wall. He avoided crowds. He stayed away from friends. He abused inhalants, he told Newsday. In 2005, he and his family talked with Newsday to try to help other service members who might need help. He talked with the paper from a psychiatric ward at Fort Bliss, Texas, where he was committed after his first run-in with the police.
In October 2005, he thought there were Iraqis outside his window in El Paso, Texas. When he heard a noise, he started shooting. Three hours later, police enticed him to come out and no one was injured.
Let us never forget that war is hell, that there are far more casualties than the numbers indicate. In many cases the ones who come home in coffins are the lucky ones; for those whose minds are broken by the experience, their lives may be shattered forever.
Politics
Comments
We support our troops, till they come home, then...it's pretty much hit or miss.
Posted by: stevogvsu | July 8, 2008 9:30 AM
Just shows how lagging our country continues to be with mental health issues; especially when it happens to our "heroes."
Posted by: Rev. AJB | July 8, 2008 10:27 AM
Dead is not lucky.
I'm an OIF vet, retired, and supported out of VAMC Cheyenne. They're an awesome bunch of folks. They have all of the problems you would expect of an enormous bureaucracy but their intentions are excellent.
War is not a natural act. Warriors who come back from war unchanged were sociopaths when they left. Some of the returnee problems like hyper-attentiveness (jungle jitters) are actually survival mechanisms downrange.
It is common for enlistees to have the guys in their unit as their first family and their biological family takes a back seat. When a troop comes back with significant psychological problems he or she is rapidly bum-rushed out of the unit, shipped home to their place of enlistment and handed over to the VA for treatment. The rationale is that this is the best thing for the troop and the best thing for the unit. (I don't agree.) The fact of the matter is that this tears a person in need away from their informal support network at the worst possible time. The neediest guys never show up at the VA, they just implode. The VAMC Cheyenne is acutely aware of this and I was hounded over the phone until I had a history of regularly making my appointments.
I have read that there may be a biological basis for PTSD, that some people form memories much differently under extreme stress and others don't. For guys like me, the memories fade while others are tortured by them. The hopeful part of this is that there may be a pharmacological answer.
This is not unique to the warriors, btw. The civilian population in a war zone fares no better and usually does a lot worse. There's no VA in Iraq.
Posted by: Preston | July 8, 2008 10:34 AM
I used to play a videogame called PlanetSide. It's a massively multiplayer online first person shooter. I used 3D goggles and surround sound headphones, very high immersion factor. After about 6 months of playing 6 to 12 hours a day I went on a camping vacation. I could not unwind. I was constantly scanning the ridgeline for snipers, jumping at unexpected sounds, or looking for good cover in case of ambush. It was just automatic. And the nightmares... it was awful. That tiny shadow of what an actual combat vet must go through upon return has given me the greatest sympathy for them. The only other experience I've had that was even remotely similar is going through withdrawal while kicking a drug addiction. You hate the thing you're leaving behind. But at the same time, in a weird way, you crave it. Most of all you can't escape it, day or night like invisible presence it's there, the feelings that are you but also not you. It's maddening.
I see these kids in uniform every time I'm at the airport and I just want to cry. The magnitude of what we're asking from our soldiers cannot be overstated. That they willingly make that sacrifice is a testament to bravery and character. That we so often fail to support them is a national shame. Farewell Joseph Patrick Dwyer. I'm so sorry.
Posted by: Abby Normal | July 8, 2008 11:33 AM
Ed:
But the keyboard warriors of the 101st Chairborne Brigade have an answer:
"They knew what they were signing up for."
As if.
Posted by: democommie | July 8, 2008 11:40 AM
My grandfather served in WWII with the Calgary Highlanders and was injured three times, returning to the front after each injury. He made it through the entire war and came back alive and otherwise intact, at least as far as I could tell. Other than being unwilling to talk about specific incidences where he killed enemy troops and getting teary-eyed when talking about fallen buddies, I never really saw anything that might indicate he ever had any problems dealing with what his experiences in combat. Then one day in 1998 he was napping on the couch in the afternoon, when the house shook with a blast from a few kilometers away where rock was being cleared to build a bridge. He awoke with a start with his eyes were darting about, and it was very obvious that, at least for a few seconds, he was back in 1944 on the front lines, preparing to defend against a German attack.
The bottom line is that everyone that is involved first-hand in a war (soldier or civilian) is a casualty.
Oh, and my grandfather is still doing well at 91 years of age, and I still like hearing him talk about how much he enjoyed the military, from the comraderie of his unit to how much the European girls loved the Canadian men in uniform!
Posted by: sinned34 | July 8, 2008 1:47 PM
Dwyer's story is an endlessly repeating tragedy, and has been since the first troops started getting rotated back home from this war. My blame goes directly to the Bush administration for their overweaning arrogance and endless incompetence, and to those in the Pentagon who, for equally craven political reasons, have downplayed the psychological damage this war is inflicting (not to mention the physical damage), while blithely ignoring and underfunding the few remaining programs in place to help these people.
It seems like Republicans only want to "support the troops" when they're overseas--for the troops back home, these conservative swine couldn't seem to give a damn.
Posted by: gary l. day | July 8, 2008 1:55 PM
I think the Republican support for the troops is more perception than reality. McCain voted against the new GI Bill for example.
Posted by: Preston | July 8, 2008 3:40 PM
First way to support the troops: don't send them where they aren't needed.
Second way: ensure they have every possible support when they return.
We've failed them in both those ways yet there's still this sense that if you mention that you are somehow dishonoring them and lacking in patriotism. It's a very strange world we live in.
Posted by: Trinifar | July 8, 2008 3:57 PM
The bottom line is: we fail to help him.
Posted by: RC | July 8, 2008 4:55 PM
The bottom line is: We failed to help him.
Posted by: RC | July 8, 2008 4:57 PM
Heartbreaking. But it's happening every day.
There is a very compelling interview with Edward Tick in The Sun Magazine about helping soldiers return to "civilian life." It is unacceptable to send our soldiers to war and not provide support to them when they come home.
Posted by: April | July 8, 2008 5:33 PM
"It's quite possible that the suicides and psychiatric mortality of this war could trump the combat deaths,"
Thomas Insel, director NIMH (May 5, 2008)
Posted by: Klem | July 8, 2008 6:10 PM
The NY Times also has an extended article today on alcohol use and such by returning servicemen.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/08/us/08vets.html
Posted by: marc buhler | July 8, 2008 6:40 PM
Preston:
In Monkeyluv (fascinating reading) Robert Sapolsky suggests that stress hormones may cause persistent brain damage in some people.
Posted by: David Ratnasabapathy | July 8, 2008 6:49 PM
When I was activated with my NG unit, I wondered what the hell I was going to do in this war, since I'm not the kind to blindly follow orders (it's tough being an anarchist in the military, but somehow I managed for 14 years). When I heard the young men and women in my unit talking about their worries, and saw how their NCOs and Officers were treating them, I decided that my role would be "Kind Older S" or "Agony Aunt." Since I had no soldier as my direct report, and since I had enough rank and age and experience to be able to stand up for myself, I decided that the best way I could serve was to provide completely accepting, non-judgemental advice for the youg GIs who'd barely been off their street before, let alone out of the country.
I thought I did well for them - allowing them to say whatever was on their minds and helping them see that there was still a life to be lived after their tour was ended. The other NCOs hated me because by being respectful and honest with the junior enlisteds, I made them look bad, but I had nothing to lose, so I let them have their petty grievances.
If my unit was not unusual among those that activated and served in this war, then one of the contributing factors to the mental problems soldiers experience is the self-centered behavior of the senior NCOs and Officers.
An analogy from civilian life might be of a kid who gets harassed and bullied at school only to come home to parents who berate him for not "toughing it out."
If there really is a difference between Democrats and Republicans, I hope that, if they win, the Democrats release the lock-down on the news and let Americans see everything that this war is costing us.
I wish that McCain's experiences as a POW will somehow help him see that this war doesn't serve America as a nation in any way at all.
Posted by: MichaelE | July 8, 2008 7:38 PM
David,
I'll have a look.
Posted by: Preston | July 9, 2008 12:43 AM
What is the percentage of returned combat veterans that suffer from drug problems compared to their direct peers who never went to war?
What is the percentage of returned combat veterans that suffer from alcohol problems compared to their direct peers who never went to war?
What is the percentage of returned combat veterans that suffer from violence problems compared to their direct peers who never went to war?
People might be a tad surprised at the reality given what's being published in the media about them.
Posted by: Jack Lacton | July 10, 2008 6:01 AM