Question for veterans?

Question

Non-veterans can answer also, but be nice. This is going to sound mean, but hear me out please.
It seems that many veterans of recent wars Vietnam, Korea and later, have psychological problems after war. Gulf-war syndrome, PTS etc, are common. Why is it the wars before that such as WW2 and WW1, the veterans don't seem to have this problem? Do they just not talk about it? Did the psychiatric field advance that much? Most seem proud to have killed Nazi's and the like. I know in more recent wars, many of the fighting was against civilians also, does this cause the mental trauma?
Thoughts and opinions if this made sense, and be nice please.

Answer 1

you have posted an interesting question. i think that it isn't so much that psychiatry has evolved, i think it's more that these men and women are opening up more. gulf-war syndrome is more of an illness that no dr has specified yet due to chemical warfare, or diseases our troops weren't exposed to before. much like agent orange in vietnam, i don't think our government or military knows the extent of harm that can be caused down the road.
i don't think your accurate in saying they seem proud to have killed nazis. you are close however. i think these men and women are proud that they stepped up and answered the call of this country to go into battle. i think they were/are proud to be a solider. i don't think they were pround to kill other people no matter who they are. i think that seeing civies coming out of the wood work and not knowing who you are fighting sometimes has made it more stressful though too.
PTSD is a major player in any life after being in war. not only for that solider but for the family too. i think is why more people are being labeled with it now is because we are making these people open up. back in the days of ww1 and 2 and even korea it was much more hush hush and speak when your spoken too type stuff. when vietnam rolled around our society was much more open and is more so to this day.
i also feel that the poor treatment these men and women come home to is a major factor as well. starting back around korea and definately vietnam and both iraq (especially this time around) these people who have sacrificed and given there all (even when they are coming home in a casket) are coming home to protesters, people even spitting on them, and calling them horrible names!
i think if we as a society started demanding that these men and women get the care they were promised and deserve, it wouldn't be as big of an issue as it is. as well as the protection they need. the resources they've gone with out in combat zones (there have been many stories and proof that in iraq they've gone with out proper protective gear) and there should be protection for them from these protesters when they come home. they deserve more respect than what they are given from our society and from our government!
i hope i have answered in a kind way. you are thinking some great things in this question, and raising these questions publicly helps raise awareness. well done!

Answer 2

I'm not a veteran and there are some very good answers here. All soldiers from whatever war they fought in have suffered some type of mental trauma. The names change, the way it is diagnosed changes, and the treatment changes. My dad served in WWII in the Pacific arena. He had 2 ships sink and one that almost sank. He lost shipmates during those encounters. I am not sure how I would have handled it, but he never talked about the war until years after I was grown up. I also think it has some to do with the treatment the military receives from the civilians at home. The Vietnam Vets were so dishonored and most of them had been drafted, not volunteered. The world wars were supported by the majority of people at home. As far as civilians being killed, not sure that has much to do with it. I think it is just the constant stress 24/7. Many people experience PTSS after earthquakes, tornado, and other major disasters. Emergency room workers (doctors, nurses) can get PTSS because of the constant stress of having to deal with sick and injured, dying people 24/7. It is the same for our military, only more so.

Answer 3

(1) COL Dave Grossman's "On Killing" might be a good start for you to read. There are other books as well on the subject. Email me if you want a booklist.

(2) Perceptions of PTSD changed since the First World War. Advances in medicine since the Crimean War meant that treatment was a lot closer to the frontline than before. Match that with serious troop density, on-site reporting, and horrendous casualty rates. What you then get are more accounts of "shellshock" and other forms of psychological illness that can no longer be explained away as plain cowardice.

(3) Fighting has always involved civilians. Read on what happened to those who fell into the clutches of the Einsatzkommando or those captured as partisans or "collaborators". There are several good accounts of the sort of trauma even mass murderers endure when they are exterminating women and children.

(4) The difference between both World Wars and subsequent conflicts is the "decompression" process that returning veterans undergo. It is extremely important to have the parades, the speeches, the community banquets, and all the other measures that reinforce to returning troops that they are safe, and the mindset which kept them alive overseas in hostilities has no place at home. Failure to do so makes it that much harder for returning veterans to place the pain and the atrocities in context.

(5) Veterans from previous wars do have problems. I know this firsthand, and I am also a veteran myself. The difference in how the community perceives you, and how you fit the role of what you did in combat against the expectations of the community you feel you belong to.

Mind you, in the West, psychiatry is much more advanced. In other places, such as Russia or Asia, PTSD is a non-issue. Perversely, this actually helps veterans out quite a bit more than offering an "out" at the slightest sign of stress. Political indoctrination is much stronger with these places, as is a sense of "homeland" and other factors which keep people going even in times of great adversity. There's been much research done on this as well.

By the way, your question isn't "mean". It's been asked before and is very legitimate and worth thinking about.

Answer 4

Sure, I'll answer and I can tell you, your quite misinformed. I'm a combat veteran, and a volunteer at the veterans hospital in a large city. Theres people with problems from every war weve ever been in (We being the U.S.), Further more, studies from other countris come out the same. Veterans can have a variety of pshych problems associated with combat. Further more, the numbers given for Vietnam veterans with problems after the war where skewered, they have been revised down, the numbers are close for just about all wars.

Answer 5

I am a Vietnam era vet, my Uncle did two tours in Nam with the 101st, My grandfather hit Omaha Beach at Normandy. Neither would talk about the war and what they had seen and done, until I entered the service. They would then talk to me some. Both were proud of what they did and went through for their country. Both felt that the average person did not understand or could relate to what they talked about. My best friends grandfather was captured at the Battle of the Bulge. He would talk about the Prison camp but not about the war up till he was captured. Alot of Vietnam vets suffered as much from the treatment they recieved from Americans when they came home as much as the trama of the war. I have two nephews who have done tours in Iraq, and a Neice that is there now. Pretty much the same story. I find they will talk more about it with other vets. There is always going to be alot of Psychological Trama in a situation where you have to kill others and they are trying to kill you.Every day. How the people back home treat and support them has a major effect on how they deal with it back home. Our Press in America is a major problem for them. How would you deal with being in that enviroment everyday, and read in the papers coming from home how your wrong, and you shouldn't be there? I personally know a lady that called me and other vets alot of things(none good trust me) during and after the Vietnam War. Totally anti-war and could not understand how anyone would go into the military. In her mind if you joined then you were a psychopath. Until she was in her late 30's and her son joined the Marines! She then understood but it was too late. God bless the soldiers that defend us.

Answer 6

I believe there are two factors to this. The first is definately the advancement in mental health, and psychology. The second, would be the way our military has changed its training doctrine from those time periods. In WW2 the men were simply trained in basic training, then horded into ships to hit the beach. Today's military is much more advanced and specialised down to the last grunt. The drill sergeants in todays military play more of a mental game with the soldiers during their 12 week bootcamp, which involves alot of physical and mental stress. A soldier is then expected to perform to perfection, therefore a clear mind is necessary. Alot more technical in Vietnam and after with the advancement of weapons, and computers, and GPS devices etc..When a soldier looses one of his own, he begins to play in his mind what did we do wrong? And seeing so called innocent people dying and getting killed on a daily basis, compared to the way we were raised in a peaceful and democratic nation, it leaves a long term impression that can be damaging to some people.

Answer 7

Up to and including the First World War the British army shot men that now would be diagnose with PTS, in WWII General Patton slap a man in a hospital bed who could be classed with PTS. Patton may of had it himself hence the slapping.

Modern wars have TV as a medium to enter all homes, people are better informed than their fore fathers of the horrors of war.

August 1914 the British army recruiting offices could not cope with the flood of men to join, as only reports that were shown were Pro Patria, men with fear were given white feathers, so it was best hide all your fears.

A returning Vet never spoke of the fear or the horrors they experienced at the front, silents was their only protection from ridicule from others who did not share the horrors of War.

Attitudes have change in the past 50 years, better medical understanding and public knowledge have enabled Veterans to speak about their experiences and gain the help that is required.

Answer 8

In WWI they called it "Shell Shocked" & in WWII they called it "Combat Fatigue." It is the same thing and many of them had it.

Audie Murphy, the most decorated soldier in the history of the US Army suffered from it.

This mental trauma is caused by prolonged stress & fear. Probably everyone who has ever been in midst of it suffers to some degree or another. The more recent wars get the publicity now.

Patton got in a lot of trouble in WWII for slapping a soldier who had combat fatigue, Patton thought him a coward, but the experts of the time recognized it for what it was.

It's always been there and probably always will be.

Answer 9

In WWI they called it "Shell Shock". In WWII they called it "Combat Fatigue".

Most Korea & Vietnam vets I know are quite proud to have killed communists, just as the predecessors were proud to kill Nazis. It isn't fun or anything like that, but it must be done.

Most of the mental trauma is in the mind of Hollywood -- the bogus stereotype of the lost, homeless, Vietnam vet that just can't get over the war -- it is crap.

And civillians can get in the way, but in most recent wars, the media has been granting the enemy with 'civillian' status. NLF in Vietnam, the 'insurgents' in Iraq...nobody wants to kill civilians, sometimes they get in the way. Mostly, what you hear about as civillian casualitys are really enemey.

Answer 10

You can't imagine how this affects the human body and a combat veterans psyhological outlook. Just imagine operating all night long, slowly, using stealth and the use of the terrain to sneak up behind a Taliban Stronghold. It takes the whole night just to crawl a few kilometers. Your pumped up, perhaps frightened, and the whole time thinking about your team members, your family at home, the comrade you loss the day before. Now you wait, wait until the Taliban starts to nod off, most of the sentries become lazy, watching this through night sights, you can't even make a whisper. Then your team is told to infiltrate, you eliminate guards with a knife or your hands, breach a weak point, and the rest of team infiltrates in, and you begin eliminating the enemy, terrorist, scum bags...but also their human beings! Imagine that 1000 fold, and then perhaps three or four days later, while mobile your patrol gets hit by an IED that is so explosive, its power throws metal fragments and nails through the air at over 3,000 feet per seconds tearing metal like paper, tearing the flesch from a human body into pieces, you feel so helpless, but you give first aid, you do whatever you can to save your comrade so many thousands of miles from home. And then when your tour is over, or it's time you can go home on leave, you hesitate, you think of your comrades, and as they coach you to go home to see your family, you almost feel numb to the idea of seeing your wife, your children, your friends. So on that airplane ride back, your a zombie, in a minute 1000 mental photos of what awaits you cross your mind, your so tired, you can sleep for 12 hours. Then your home, oh, there is nothing better than home, a wife who is also your best friend, your daughters who have grown more lovely, more radiant, and all of a sudden it is like someone grabs you to wake you up from a nightmare, you realize your almost in a different world.

No, I don't talk or brag about it. It doesn't make me feel like I'm an imortal warrior, it doesn't make you more of a man, it only makes you realize how so lucky it is to live in a free and democratic society.

It's your last mission, a career spanning 30 years. At 45 in SF is "old", you get to go back to JFK to teach new Green Berets until you retire in 2 years. You want to so much be back with your comrades, you want to so much be at home, the war inside your brain is terrible.

The trauma is so great, and often misunderstood. The VA Hospitals do so little, but they give allot of pills out....it is something that each combat veteran must learn to deal with, and it is not easy, no matter what branch of service, no matter what rank, it is not easy. I have mainly my wife and daughters to thank for understanding and giving me the space, so I could re-adjust, I thank God although I wish I could see and talk with him, I thank my physical fitness to go into a long loved field of Physical Fitness, and I thank everyone who support our brave men and women who are fighting a war that has never been fought in the history of our world.

Then there are the combat veterans who have no body, or their loved ones didn't stay loyal and ran off, these are the ones that now have to deal with the combat stress, but also the social stress....absoluteley terrible!

And no, I don't want 10 points, I wrote this to let you know, and to thank you for being concerned about all of our veterans.

God Bless