A 115 year old Veteran

[CD3]

Had his birthday yesterday.

He Served in WWI (yeah uno!) and lives in Puerto Rico ([Only registered and activated users can see links]).
:party0036[1]:

[101Scout]

I would love to hear his comments about today's ME debacle. That would be choice!

[Crazy Guggenheim]

Had his birthday yesterday.

He Served in WWI (yeah uno!) and lives in Purto Rico.

:party0036[1]:

[CD3]

"That means he was born in 1891! Benjamin Harrison was President."

That's the President I remember being named in the news report. :a075:

[TheBoss(DCA)]

Had his birthday yesterday.

He Served in WWI (yeah uno!) and lives in Purto Rico.

:party0036[1]:
Can we please have any links. If it's a radio station is it archieved somewhere?

[CD3]

Can we please have any links. If it's a radio station is it archieved somewhere?

[Only registered and activated users can see links]

google his name for more info.

[TheBoss(DCA)]

[Only registered and activated users can see links]

google his name for more info.
Thanks :D:hi2:

[The_Bammo]

This old Soldier definately deserves a post -- for sure!
------------------------------
Mon Aug 21


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The world's oldest person celebrated his 115th birthday Monday, offering advice on healthy living at a party where he was serenaded by a well-known Puerto Rican singer.
Emiliano Mercado del Toro, who was a boy when the United States seized Puerto Rico from Spain in 1898, attributed his long life to a healthy diet and avoiding alcohol.

"I never damaged my body with liquor," said Mercado, who quit a 76-year smoking habit when he was 90.
Mercado was declared the world's oldest person by the Guinness Book of Records last year.
"I never thought I would last so long," he said.
An ambulance carried him to an outdoor plaza where family, friends and the mayor gathered for the party. His favorite performer, Iris Chacon, crooned a birthday tune set to mariachi music.
"I feel happy," said the wheelchair-bound Mercado, who has difficulty hearing and has been blind for four years. He lives with a niece in the northwestern coastal town of Isabela.
Mercado was recruited into the U.S. army in 1918, during the last months of World War I. He was still in training when the war ended in November of that year.
As a young man, Mercado said he worked for 50 cents a day driving animals loaded with sugar cane to processing centers.
The mayor of Isabela, Charlie Delgado, said a residence for the elderly would be named for Mercado in honor of a man who "ate healthy, had no major vices and who has put this island on the world stage."
Guinness had recognized another Puerto Rican as being the world's oldest person. Ramona Trinidad Iglesias Jordan died May 29, 2004, after a bout with pneumonia. She was 114.

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[The_Bammo]

The Veteran


When I was young and bold and strong,
Oh, right was right, and wrong was wrong!
My plume on high, my flag unfurled,
I rode away to right the world.
"Come out, you dogs, and fight!" said I,
And wept there was but once to die.


But I am old; and good and bad
Are woven in a crazy plaid.
I sit and say, "The world is so;
And he is wise who lets it go.
A battle lost, a battle won-
The difference is small, my son."


Inertia rides and riddles me;
The which is called Philosophy.


Dorothy Parker

[CD3]

This old Soldier definately deserves a post -- for sure!
------------------------------
Mon Aug 21


[Only registered and activated users can see links]

The world's oldest person celebrated his 115th birthday Monday, offering advice on healthy living at a party where he was serenaded by a well-known Puerto Rican singer.
Emiliano Mercado del Toro, who was a boy when the United States seized Puerto Rico from Spain in 1898, attributed his long life to a healthy diet and avoiding alcohol.

"I never damaged my body with liquor," said Mercado, who quit a 76-year smoking habit when he was 90.
Mercado was declared the world's oldest person by the Guinness Book of Records last year.
"I never thought I would last so long," he said.
An ambulance carried him to an outdoor plaza where family, friends and the mayor gathered for the party. His favorite performer, Iris Chacon, crooned a birthday tune set to mariachi music.
"I feel happy," said the wheelchair-bound Mercado, who has difficulty hearing and has been blind for four years. He lives with a niece in the northwestern coastal town of Isabela.
Mercado was recruited into the U.S. army in 1918, during the last months of World War I. He was still in training when the war ended in November of that year.
As a young man, Mercado said he worked for 50 cents a day driving animals loaded with sugar cane to processing centers.
The mayor of Isabela, Charlie Delgado, said a residence for the elderly would be named for Mercado in honor of a man who "ate healthy, had no major vices and who has put this island on the world stage."
Guinness had recognized another Puerto Rican as being the world's oldest person. Ramona Trinidad Iglesias Jordan died May 29, 2004, after a bout with pneumonia. She was 114.

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I might be mistaken but I think he's the oldest American Man not the oldest Man.

*shrug* either way.

[Trap]

Back in 1983 I had the pleasure and honor of meeting a man who had been in both World Wars, as an infantry soldier in I and as a quarter master serving in Iran in II. Mr. Baldrini. (I am terrible at names but I can always recall his..he made that impression on me)

There has always been something special about those WWI vets. Either their age, and mine, when I met them or something else. The experience of being in the trenches, the artillery, the enemy so close, the hand to hand combat...these guys always seemed to have 'action' always going on around them.

Mr. Baldrini's most vivid memory of WWI: The cries of the wounded horses at night.

Happy Birthday Mr. Mercado :anim_beer:

[The_Bammo]

Back in 1983 I had the pleasure and honor of meeting a man who had been in both World Wars, as an infantry soldier in I and as a quarter master serving in Iran in II. Mr. Baldrini. (I am terrible at names but I can always recall his..he made that impression on me)

There has always been something special about those WWI vets. Either their age, and mine, when I met them or something else. The experience of being in the trenches, the artillery, the enemy so close, the hand to hand combat...these guys always seemed to have 'action' always going on around them.

Mr. Baldrini's most vivid memory of WWI: The cries of the wounded horses at night.

Happy Birthday Mr. Mercado :anim_beer:

I hear ya' Trap, I met a few WW1 Vets in the VAMC back in the 70's and early eighties as well. Plus my uncle was a WW 1 disabled Vet.

Funny how my family looked at my uncle as being crazy. I never thought he was crazy at all. WW1 definately had a lot of effects on him but he seen a lot and could tell you exactly what war was for him as an infantryman during WW1. It was not right the way my family labled him and kind of shunned him.

Funny thing, my family did the same to me after I came back from Nam. So I have an idea on how he must of felt.

Wonder if my family just did not understand the changes that a war can do to an individual or that they did not want to understand, and go about their everyday routine as if we did not exist.

Hang Tough~

[Trap]

and go about their everyday routine as if we did not exist.


Yes, let's work hard to see that the Iraq War vets get all the mental help they need. According to what I have read, they are suffering and not getting any help.

The mental health issue is one of those unspoken, often forgottn costs of war.

It is also why NO leader should willingly jump into war as a first option.

Please help us that have never served, nor been in combat, to understand and help those who need and so deserve our care.

PS. I am sorry to hear your uncle suffered without the help of his family. Those WWI vets went through hell and then some. Heck, they were given weapons that were prone to jam at the slightest bit of mud in them...which was everywhere in the trenches.

I read All Silent on the Western Front in 8th grade and it changed my gung-ho attitude towards war real quick.

[The_Bammo]

Yes, let's work hard to see that the Iraq War vets get all the mental help they need. According to what I have read, they are suffering and not getting any help.

The mental health issue is one of those unspoken, often forgottn costs of war.

It is also why NO leader should willingly jump into war as a first option.

Please help us that have never served, nor been in combat, to understand and help those who need and so deserve our care.

PS. I am sorry to hear your uncle suffered without the help of his family. Those WWI vets went through hell and then some. Heck, they were given weapons that were prone to jam at the slightest bit of mud in them...which was everywhere in the trenches.

I read All Silent on the Western Front in 8th grade and it changed my gung-ho attitude towards war real quick.

Good post Trap and you are right about my uncle but he was a hell of a man in my eyes.

Glad you read that book in the 8th grade and it educated you to the ways of war.

Hear you about the phyclogical effects of war on a lot that have fought that shed no blood and a lot that did bleed Trap.

Next post will be a pretty decent page that I find quite interesting .

Hang Tough~

[The_Bammo]

A Brief History of PTSD, WWI to Present



The Waterloo/Cedar Falls Courier does another fine job of reporting on combat PTSD in a companion piece ([Only registered and activated users can see links]) to this weekend's article detailing the unique characteristics ([Only registered and activated users can see links]) of the Iraq war. This latest offering takes us on a quick history tour of PTSD through the years. Although each war has its own flavor, the only thing that's changed as far as the war's emotional aftershocks is what we decide to call the mental burdens placed on its veterans.

[I]Click on 'Article Link' below tags for more...

From the Courier:


Experts maintain the mental state as it relates to armed conflict likely began when the first human picked up the first stick or stone. Only the name has changed. During the Civil War, soldiers who lost their will or capacity to fight were afflicted with nostalgia, later diagnosed as soldier's heart. The affliction for a time also carried the name Swiss disease, a tribute to soldiers from that country forced into military units.



Society later introduced the concept of railway spine, which evolved from numerous and horrific railroad accidents. The diagnosis was popularized in lawsuits in the 1870s. As the theory evolved, doctors reached a general view that intense fear disturbed a person's nervous system. By the end of the 19th century, traumatic hysteria and traumatic neurasthenia were the accepted terms.



Then came World War I. The global cataclysm advanced the idea of subconscious mental processes, a theory gaining acceptance. During that war, physicians described soldiers as shell shocked. They assigned the diagnosis to those with neurological symptoms but no physical injuries. The term came from the idea exploding shells changed atmospheric pressure near soldiers, harming their nervous systems. Researchers later determined relatively few cases involved exploding ordnance, which only added to the mystery.



World War II provided the concept of combat fatigue. Statistics show one in four casualties in World War II resulted from the mental disorder. In Europe, the U.S. military recorded one combat stress casualty for every three soldiers wounded in action, according to Field Manual FM 6-22.5, which is used and distributed by the U.S. Marine Corps.But it was the experience of Vietnam which eventually brought about the term posttraumatic stress disorder, recognized in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in 1980. In 1999, the DOD began to require the use of the term combat stress reaction; later it was changed to combat-operational stress reaction to show how it differed from other forms of trauma-induced PTSD.


Part of the disorder's history includes society's reaction to it. Whether diagnosed with nostalgia, railway spine or shell shock, afflicted soldiers over the years were labeled as malingerers. When he admitted problems about midway through a tour in Iraq, Army veteran Ron DeVoll Jr. of Cedar Falls says supervisors' attitudes changed. "They talked down to me, called me a coward. 'You're supposed to be tough. You're supposed to be a man.' I thought I was," he says.



In the course of seeking help, DeVoll told superiors he was having nightmares. "They said, 'That's normal. You'll get over it.'" The response DeVoll received in 2003 echoes that from earlier eras.



During World War I, Thomas Salmon, a U.S. medical officer, defined the condition as merely an "escape" from intolerable circumstances. At the same time, Fredrick Parsons, commanding officer at a U.S. military hospital, said "a war neurosis which persists is not a creditable disease to have ... as it indicates in practically every case a lack of the soldierly qualities which have distinguished the Allied Armies." He added "no one should be permitted to glorify himself as a case of 'shell shock.'"



During World War I, the British military reportedly executed more than 300 of its own soldiers for cowardice, desertion or insubordination. In today's terms, at least some likely were only demonstrating effects of combat-stress reaction.



In World War II, the British military described some of its soldiers as lacking moral fiber. On the American side, Gen. George Patton severely tarnished his distinguished military career after slapping and yelling at two soldiers. The privates were recuperating in a military hospital in Sicily alongside others with more visible wounds. "Don't admit this yellow bastard," Patton reportedly yelled at a medical officer. "There's nothing the matter with him. I won't have the hospitals cluttered up with these sons of bitches who haven't got the guts to fight."



President Franklin Roosevelt received hundreds of letters about the incident. The majority supported Patton and his actions; some even suggested a promotion was in order. Ultimately, though, Patton was reprimanded, ordered to apologize and relieved of command of the Seventh Army.One of the best article I've seen out there on the historical aspect of PTSD. Not surprising that it come from a local media ([Only registered and activated users can see links]) source; they've been cleaning the clocks of the national media coverage on this for quite a while.



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[The_Bammo]

Can you talk about the term "Soldier's Heart" and how it connects to our understanding today about what is PTSD?
The term "Soldier's Heart" was first coined in the post-Civil War era when people were looking at these veterans returning from Civil War combat and trying to understand why they had been changed, because there was general recognition that they had been changed, and that many of those changes were not for the good. [And back then] there were two different models trying to explain this. One was a psychological model, and the other model was a physiological model.
Soldier's Heart comes from the physiological model, the observations that people's cardiovascular system in terms of their heart dynamics, their blood pressure, a pulse rate, seemed to be altered. We can now incorporate that under the PTSD construct, but starting with Soldier's Heart, Irritable Heart ... it was [Jacob Mendez] Da Costa, who I believe was a 19th-century cardiologist, who made these observations.
Then, in World War I, another physical explanation was shell shock, the notion being that being close to the big guns pounding out the artillery on both sides of the barbed wire in the trench warfare was somehow disrupting neuronal connections, so nerves were actually affected. Combat exhaustion, combat fatigue -- all of these are physical types of manifestations. Following the Gulf War, some people felt that the unexplained medical symptoms [were] on a continuum going back to Soldier's Heart, as you've asked.
The parallel trajectory is about the psychological models. And in the Civil War, it was very interesting; the psychological model was nostalgia. The notion was that a Vermonter who found himself with Sherman marching through Georgia who exhibited psychological symptoms was doing so because he was nostalgic for being back in Vermont. Being in this alien Georgia terrain was somehow psychologically so disconcerting that he was having these kinds of symptoms. So this was another model under the influence of the Freudian psychoanalytic school. This got transformed into notions of traumatic neurosis and on and on.
And what's really interesting about PTSD is that it incorporates both the physical manifestations -- and certainly our research has shown that people with PTSD have alterations in their physiology and even are at risk for medical problems as well as psychological problems -- and it incorporates, of course, the psychological symptoms. The first person who really discovered this was an American psychoanalyst [Abraham Kardiner] working with World War I veterans. ... And what he observed, in addition to the psychological distress that they were manifesting and that he was diagnosing as traumatic neurosis -- which was the term that was used for these symptoms in those days -- he also noticed that they were physiologically altered. Particularly he noticed that they were very jumpy, that unexpected loud noises would produce in them a startled reaction …
[Only registered and activated users can see links] Tell me about the breakthrough concerning understanding how the mind and body connect.
Well, you know, this mind-body dualism that has infected medical thinking for centuries, since Descartes, if you will, is the notion that what happens in the mind doesn't affect the body. And hopefully everybody now recognizes that we're talking about the brain, and the brain is a part of the body. And it also is the part of the body that produces the phenomenology that we also talk about as mind.
And I'd say in the last 10, maybe 15 years, there has been extraordinary progress. And I'm proud to say that the National Center for PTSD has been at the forefront of this progress, showing that people with PTSD have alterations in certain structures of the brain. And they have alterations in how the brain processes information, particularly how it processes information perceived to be dangerous or information that might be reminiscent of a tour in Iraq or of other traumatic situations. So this really is becoming much clearer now in terms of why both the body and the brain are affected in people with PTSD and other post-traumatic problems.
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[The_Bammo]

Did World War II vets talk about PTSD?
… The classic story for a World War II veteran is, [he] came home from the war, drank a little bit too much, maybe partied a little too much, got in some fights here and there, had a hard time settling down. Eventually, with a lot of support and perhaps [a] push from the family, he said, "OK, I'm done doing this," and then worked two jobs for the next 30, 40 years, sometimes having an occasional nightmare but basically having the whole experience shut off from the rest of [his] life -- "I put it behind me" -- not talking very much about it with family members or with others, many not associating with other veterans' groups or anything that might bring back some of the remembrance of what they went through.
And then many of those folks, as they reached retirement, as they developed illness, as they went through family stresses or they lost loved ones, suddenly would wake up one night in the middle of a nightmare saying, "Where'd this come from?" And I've seen many of those people from that moment on be plagued by symptoms. ...
It was a different world, it was a different culture that they came back to. It was a culture of a post-Depression era -- "We won the war; we're really great." ... When I ask them one of my standard questions -- "Have you ever talked with your family about what happened?" -- the answer is almost invariably no. Almost to a person, it's always "No, I haven't." "Well, why not?" Well, it's "They don't want to hear it; they wouldn't believe it; I don't want them feeling sorry for me; they haven't asked about it." When you ask their families if it ever gets that far, they say, "Well, we always [knew we] should never ask Dad that question; there were some things we just had to stay away from." ...
Society didn't want to hear it, you know. You don't want to hear that your hero who has just come back from winning the war is troubled by what he did over there and the people he bombed, the people he shot. People didn't want to hear that kind of thing. All anybody wanted to hear at the time was: "Isn't it wonderful? We won. We've saved the world. Thank you." ...
There's a fellow from the other side of the state that I see from time to time, who worked lots of jobs, had positions of authority, was very effective in his work. Within a week after he retired, he was just flooded with symptoms. "Where'd this come from? I have no idea what this is about. I remember these events, I remember how awfully it felt at the time, but I thought I put those behind me years ago. Why are they here now? Why are they back?"
It's a very common response from people who are just now reexperiencing stuff that they thought was long gone, long buried. The mind is a wonderful thing, what it can do. It can protect us from things that are too upsetting. And sometimes we get away with it; sometimes we don't. Sometimes it comes back years later. …
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Sometimes people come back to these experiences at the end of their lives.
I think the best piece of work I ever did in treating anybody with PTSD was a Korean War veteran who had been a POW who had helped his fellow POWs escape. Part of the process of that was coming up behind somebody and putting a piece of cord around his neck and strangling him. This man lived with that image for his whole life. It would come to him occasionally while he was working, but not in a big way. When he was dying, I think the best thing that I was able to do for him was help him find a way to talk to his pastor about it. [A] pastor came from the local church and listened to the story and provided the kind of forgiveness that for this man only a pastor could do. Psychiatrists can't do that; we don't have that kind of power.
These people, their spirituality is deeply affected by what they've done. And I've seen many people when they are dying -- and I've done a lot of work with that population -- they start talking about things that happened 50 years ago. Many are looking for forgiveness. Some have given up looking for forgiveness. They just feel this is something that does not fit with how they've lived their lives. Part of the work of dying ... is putting your whole life in context, looking at how it all fits together, and for people like this, this doesn't fit. This is not how they lived. This is not how they were raised as children; it's not how they have functioned as adults. It's an interlude that lasted a year or two, and it does not fit anywhere. And it's very hard work. …
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[The_Bammo]

How do the services available now compare with what Vietnam, World War II, or Korean War vets got?
I think that the person returning from Iraq is going to see a mental health service that is more sophisticated in its knowledge about what to do to be of help to them. ... They won't necessarily find more resources, but hopefully they will find more effective resources than they did 30 years ago. ... People came home from Vietnam and [were told,] "Well, you're just crazy." They got put into this psych thing; they got treated with major tranquilizers. There were not a lot of specialized programs. So now at least we have specialized programs that not only are specialized but actually have some expertise. ...
One thing we know is that [today's] veteran, more than any other, has a much higher likelihood of actually being in combat. This war is everywhere, in the streets; there's no safe place. In Vietnam there were at least some safe places, relatively safe places that you could be. In Iraq there's no safe place. So people who are coming home will have been on peak alert for 365 days or more, will have had all of their senses tuned to the slightest disturbance, the slightest sound of trouble, so I think it's going to be a very sensitized population. It will have a much higher prevalence of people who have had bad things happen, who have seen combat, who have been in combat, who have lost people close to them, who have had the guy standing next to them blown up, the person in the Humvee sitting next to them blown up. We will see a lot more of that. …
Even the World War II veterans who won't say anything to their families, have never spoken to their friends, when they get going in a group of them who are all flooded with memories, they have a lot of stories to tell. They won't tell anybody else. And they will say: "It's because Joe understands. Nobody else would understand, and most people wouldn't believe it."
We're beginning to see some of that same trajectory with some of the Vietnam veterans who have been very productive citizens [and] who are now getting into their 50s and 60s. We're seeing more and more and hearing more and more of them coming into treatment saying: "I don't understand what's happening, you know? I've been doing fine all these years, and all of a sudden I'm having trouble. I don't understand." So I expect we will be seeing Vietnam-era people for the next 30 years. …

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[The_Bammo]

Historically, what has been the percentage of veterans suffering from PTSD?
The historical experience, for example with PTSD, of people who have been POWs about 50 percent. Vietnam veterans, 25 to 30 percent had PTSD. Of Gulf War I veterans, 10 to 15 percent had PTSD. There was a study done that was published in the [I]New England Journal of Medicine [Editor's Note: See the "Readings" ([Only registered and activated users can see links]) section of this Web site for the study] ... that showed that about 15, 16, 17 percent of soldiers coming back from deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan reported symptoms consistent with anxiety depression or PTSD.
This was really a very unique study because it was done on soldiers almost immediately after they got off the plane. This wasn't a study done 10 years later. This was a study done immediately, or almost immediately, after exposure to the situation that you would expect to be the risk factor for PTSD. So comparing that 15, 16 percent to the 10 to 15 percent that we saw in Gulf War I, it wasn't surprising that there were soldiers coming back who were reporting these kinds of symptoms. We are concerned about those soldiers and want to provide the best possible care for those soldiers.
The other thing that the study showed is that some of the soldiers were reluctant to seek out that care. That's something that we need to work on: making sure that all of the soldiers who need care, because of what they have seen and been exposed to during their deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan, get the care that they need. …
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What has driven this progress in our understanding of PTSD?
I think it's fair to say that the Vietnam veterans and the fact that they were so socially active, and that the Vietnam veterans' advocacy groups were so politically active, were very important in getting PTSD defined, getting research resources allocated for the research into PTSD, and getting it on the map politically. It was pressure from the Vietnam veterans' advocacy groups that really pushed the mental health community into defining PTSD and putting it into the DSM IV.
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So you do think our treatment and understanding of PTSD has improved?
Certainly I think that that's true. I think that because the mental health community, because mental health as a science and as a medical art, has come such a long distance, we have more to offer. I think that there's also been awareness through the military physicians who have been around since Vietnam, ... and they have really worked to develop the doctrine and the organizational structures, the mental health resources to be a part of the combat force that goes into war.
For Gulf War I, [the Army] was using the new units, combat stress control units, that were structured and had a doctrine in training that allowed them to not be clinic-based, where the soldiers had to come away from where their units were deployed and come to a central location for care, but to take that care forward to where the units were, where the soldiers were, where they were being exposed to the things that were causing them problems. [These units] provide more proactive care, more preventive health ... and also a particular type of mental health care for soldiers with Acute Stress Disorders, with what we call combat and operational stress reactions.
This is a particular type of disorder, and it's treated far forward, near the soldier's unit. They pull them out of the violent situation that they are in to a safe place, but not very far away from their unit. They provide a very simple regimen of sleep, including medication for sleep if they need it; rest, a couple of, three days of rest; hot food; hot showers; clean uniforms. They keep them close to their unit, so that they can maintain that identity with their unit and so that they can also have chain of command.
Their commanders can come and visit them, and they maintain that sense of belonging in that social structure. That's important for making them feel like they're not a patient; they're not sick; they're not in a hospital. They're still part of their unit. They're treated with the expectation that they're going to get better in a couple of days and go back to work.
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[But that was not always the case, was it? In the past, what was the procedure for soldiers suffering from PTSD?]
Our experience with that has gone back all the way to the First World War. They evacuated shell shock casualties, and a large proportion of them went [on] to develop chronic mental health disorders. [It was] the same experience [when] we looked at the experience from World War II and Korea and from Vietnam. The first Gulf War was the first time that the Army, the American Army, had tried to use the specific types of units with this specific type of training and doctrine in treating that particular kind of Acute Stress Disorder.
In the 10 years that has gone by, because of the successes in using that unit and that doctrine and the research, ... those units have been made a permanent, formal part of the Army's structure. So when the Army goes to war, they take their tent hospital with them, but they also take the combat stress control units with them. And that's a regular part of the way the Army does business.
The Marines are starting to adopt some of those Army structures and organization. [They are] adapting it to their own organization and culture, but they are starting to use the embedded, organic mental health resources and not just depend on the tent hospital system that the Navy provides to them.

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[The_Bammo]

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What is Soldier’s Heart?

Today, we call it Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Before that, troops came home with Vietnam Syndrome.
Three wars earlier, we had Battle Fatigue or Shell Shock.
But in more poetic times, there was Soldier’s Heart.
In the era of the United States Civil War, the most barbaric modern conflict up to that time, veterans returning home were often said to have “soldier’s heart”. Unstable emotions, frequently spurred by guilt, led to withdrawal from their families and from life. Their concerned loved ones needed a way to frame this condition that changed the men they knew before the war. Somehow, the expression “soldier’s heart” became commonplace. As with the Twentieth Century ailment of tennis elbow, soldier’s heart is a condition that comes from over-exertion. In this case, emotional over-exertion.

Then, as now, returning warriors lived with a combination of horror, guilt, fear, and ingrained survival instinct that would not go away. For many, the only relief to be found was in a bottle. For others, solace could only be found in death. Suicide. Terminal Post Traumatic Stress Disorder: Soldier’s Heart.
Over the years, with changing societal views of war, of warriors, and of psychiatry, the name given to soldier’s heart has changed as well. During World War I, with its trench warfare, advanced field artillery and the introduction of tanks as weapons, “Shell Shock” seemed the appropriate name to describe the soldier and his “thousand yard stare”. World War II saw protracted campaigns with troops commonly serving through years of one battle after another: day after day of killing and dying from one island to another, or one hilltop to the next, leading many to suffer from “Battle Fatigue”. It wasn’t until several years after the Vietnam War that the military, the Veterans Administration, the medical community and society saw that whenever people endure any trauma (this is not limited to combat), physical and mental residue is left behind after the trauma is gone. Thus, today we have “"Post Traumatic Stress Disorder”.
Whatever the name, and whatever the conflict, combat-related Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder affects a large number of military veterans. From the current US conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is estimated that as many as 35% of the 1.2 million US servicemembers who have cycled through the region are already exhibiting strong signs of PTSD, an illness known for its tendency to lay dormant for years or decades.
Why “Soldier’s Heart”?

This website, soldiersheart.org, started out to promote an evening of staged reading performance titled, Performing Wellness VII, Soldier’s Heart: Stories of the Aftermath of War ([Only registered and activated users can see links]), produced by The Well Arts Institute ([Only registered and activated users can see links]) at Portland, Oregon in April, 2005.
Following the Performing Wellness process ([Only registered and activated users can see links]), seven veterans and one wife of a Korean War veteran started with weekly writing workshops in September, 2004, which led the group to writing of their experiences and lives in December and January. Finally, in February, 2005, professional actors ([Only registered and activated users can see links]) were brought in to work with the writers ([Only registered and activated users can see links]) and the director ([Only registered and activated users can see links]) to transform the work of the writers into performance pieces for the stage. As with any production, one priority was to name it, and to give it a name which would express what the artists envisioned as well as draw in an audience. Inspired by the words of his teenage daughters, one of the writers suggested “Soldier’s Heart”, an antiquated term from a more poetic time. The team of writers worked and massaged it until they came up with the final title.
Performing Wellness VII, Soldier’s Heart: Stories of the Aftermath of War was set to open on April 10, 2005.
One of the writers wanted to put up a website to promote the show, so he registered the name soldiersheart.org as soon as the group had decided on the name in February. While working on the promotional website, it made sense to include information about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, the thing that brought this group of writers together almost five months earlier. While researching PTSD online, it became clear that not only was information disparate, and difficult to find, but that there was no one source that pulled together medical and psychiatric information together with information on resources to deal with the disorder. In itself, this dearth created a new mission for the website originally founded merely to promote an independant stage production.
“Soldier’s Heart” premiered at Portland State University’s Lincoln Hall to remarkably positive public response. All four scheduled performances sold out, and when a matinee was announced for April 16, it sold out in less than a day. Along with the success of the stage production, the website saw a great deal of traffic, especially on the Information and Resources pages.
People had been sending the links around to friends and acquaintances whom they thought could benefit from what was made available at soldiersheart.org. By the end of the production run, it was decided that the website should continue on along this tangential line, and now soldiersheart.org is filling a void with the goal of being the most complete single point of information for education ([Only registered and activated users can see links]), support ([Only registered and activated users can see links]), and health ([Only registered and activated users can see links]) for combat-related Post Traumatic Stress Disorder on the Web.
Additionally, in keeping with the philosophy of “Wellness through the Arts” that is the guiding force of The Well Arts Institute ([Only registered and activated users can see links]), soldiersheart.org now includes a gallery ([Only registered and activated users can see links]) of artwork created by military veterans.
How can I help?

Reach out

If you know a veteran, welcome him or her home. Even if your friend came home 30 years ago, and you’ve only known each other for two years, say it out loud: “Welcome back. Welcome Home.” Too many veterans have never heard those words.
If you know a veteran who appears to be having trouble, let him know that you are there to listen. And if he or she does start to talk, listen. LISTEN. Really listen. You don’t have to solve anyone’s problems, but merely through the act of listening, you can help.

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[The_Bammo]

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[Trap]

Vietnam veterans, 25 to 30 percent had PTSD. Of Gulf War I veterans, 10 to 15 percent

Wow,
Lots to read and think about.

I have a neighbor who is a vietnam vet. He never fired his weapon in anger, no major PTSD.

However, in May of this year he went back to vietnam. He had a wonderful experience....no he says words can not describe how well he was treated.

The people in Sigon told him that it was "OK" for him to call it Sigon...they still do too. He took a tour boat that was some old Soviet ship, visited 'VC Island' and took a tour of the tunnles conducted by a very old VC dude that he spoke to at length. The guy's comment on the war 'American War #10' (PS, when my friend unrolled his cigarette the GI style, the VC guy picked up on it right away)

He visited his old base, only to learn that the VC had planned Tet in the tunnels right underneath the base.

All in all, I think it was a very cleansing experience for Bob. He got the see the country at peace and the people he met loved him for that.

Migh be something to think about Bammo.

PS. Welcome home Bammo, WELCOME HOME. You served your country when it called, you served well, I thank you for that service.

So long as you still draw breath in your lungs you are alive. Rejoice in the moment, reflect on the past....we need you here with us today, our country has been taken into another war without justification.

Welcome Home American Who Served