The Invisible Victims: Iraqi Soldiers and PTSD

Ethan Brown, journalist and notable author of hyped hip hop tomes “Queens Reigns Supreme” and “Snitch,” gave us a glimpse of his upcoming book, an exposé on the seemingly invisible victims of the war – the soldiers who suffer from PTSD.

DS: What exactly is PTSD?

EB: PTSD is an acronym for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. There are a number of symptoms; from dizziness to nightmares to flashbacks. But PTSD is not something only Iraq veterans endure. People who’ve been sexually assaulted or were in a car accident can suffer from PTSD. Basically any traumatic event can cause the illness. Because this war is still going on, specialists are still trying to figure out exactly how many vets are suffering from PTSD. What they do know is that this particular war is the sort that creates a lot of mental health problems for several reasons:

1. Unlike in past wars, you have soldiers doing multiple tours of duty.
2. The Iraq War doesn’t really have a battle field, meaning there’s a lot of police work, things like getting into a Humvee and going out on patrol. They’re not necessarily engaging in combat but very often people are killed or injured. So the every day life of a soldier in Iraq is shrouded in danger. The vets I’ve talked to have told me that when they’re over there, there is no point where you can relax mentally because at any moment you or someone in your unit can be blown up. It’s tremendously traumatic and the people who are able to navigate that kind of scenario the best are often the ones who fair the worst when they come home. They find there’s no way to wind down from that on guard 24/7 mentality.
3. Another factor is soldiers are coming home badly wounded.
4. There’s another piece that doesn’t get a lot of attention. It’s something I learned talking to veterans. Over there soldiers have a certain amount of power and respect and sense of meaning. Then a lot of them are coming home to work $9/hr retail job. How do you make the transition from having power and in many cases having soldiers under your command to coming home to an invisible life?
5. Related to that is the reality that somehow the war has completely slipped off the radar. There’s a lot of news about it right now because of the five year anniversary but otherwise you don’t hear much about it. Every soldier I spoke to says it’s really difficult to come home and be invisible and see the lack of interest among the public. It would be interesting for someone to compare what presence the Vietnam War had in the late 60s and 70s to the presence of the war in our lives now. People were very torn about the Vietnam War. It seems like it was in your home more because back then news cameras could go out with the tours. Cameramen and journalists were in the battlefield. A lot of the veterans said things like “Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton” are all Americans care about.

Tell me a little about your new book.

I moved down to New Orleans to write about Iraq veteran Zackery Bowen who was from NOLA and who came home from his service in late 2004 after serving a year or so. He struggled with a lot of mental health problems until he spiraled out of control. In the fall of 2006, he strangled his girlfriend to death, then dismembered her and kept the body in his house for two weeks while he went partying. At the end of this two-week spree, he jumped off the roof of the Omni Royal Hotel, the tallest hotel in New Orleans. He left directions in his pocket for the police to find the body of his girlfriend.

Zackery’s unit was actually one of the first to cross the border from Kuwait. He literally saw the first moments of the war, which was just an incredible thing to experience because Baghdad fell so fast and there was the “mission accomplished” thing. It was and still is an incredible thing to see the war go from this seemingly fast “victory” to what it is now.

Working on the book has led to uncovering the stories of other Iraq veterans and their mental health problems. It’s a huge issue now because suicide rates are really high. Also, the NYT did a piece about Iraq vets committing homicides. And I’m sure you’ve heard about a murder of a young woman in Auburn University; she was 19, a sophomore or freshman. She was brutally murdered in an armed robbery/kidnapping fashion. The murderer was an Iraq veteran. These stories pop up every few weeks now but the information of the perpetrator as an Iraqi veteran is sometimes provided, but it’s always a side note - an, “Oh, by the way.” It’s getting some attention but not the attention it deserves. It’s a big reason I want to write this book.

Do you think young soldiers tend to suffer more from PTSD?

It affects soldiers of all ages. One of the soldiers I interviewed that’s doing the best is young. He was 19 when he was in Iraq; now he’s about 21 or 22. He was able to adjust when he returned because he immediately enrolled in college. I’ve talked to vet experts about this and they agree that college is a great avenue for these guys because they don’t have a boss or a set schedule. That sense of meaning and purpose is there with college. It’s not a sense of just wasting your day away in a dead end job. In a way, younger guys tend to do much better because they can go to college. Another factor is that they don’t have wives and children they’re responsible for.

You have the extreme story of Zachary, the soldier you’re writing about. Do you have less dramatic, poignant stories that many people may not hear about?

Yes, it’s a story about a guy who served with Zachary in Iraq. He was one of the ones that was always on alert in Iraq. He was actually the gunner in his unit. The gunners are always gun-ho, the toughest and the most wanting and willing to kill. Everyone that I talked to who served with him couldn’t praise him enough as a gunner. They say he was able to pick off snipers easily. He was the man. He’s slightly older - in his late 20s. When he came back he had an incredibly difficult time. He couldn’t and still can’t adjust to life here. He just couldn’t do the mental shift from Iraq to here. When he came home he was getting into bar fights all the time and doing damage to people. He started to get flashbacks and panic attacks, the classic PTSD symptoms. Now, finally, he’s a wreck. His wife left him and he’s having panic attacks and flashbacks almost all the time now. Everything reminds him of Iraq. He told me that even a crumpled plastic bag on the street will make him think about Iraq because little explosive devices were hidden in trash on the street. When I went to visit him in Indiana, there happened to be a very bad snow storm. He came to meet me in short sleeves with no jacket at all. He said he can’t be warm in any way because it reminds him of Iraq and gives him a panic attack.

Unfortunately, he’s not much of an extreme example of what a lot of these guys are dealing with. He talked to me about trying to deal with the US Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) to get help. The VA doctors are trying to give him anti-depressants but that’s not appropriate for what he’s dealing with. He’s not depressed - that’s not the problem. He’s struggling with PTSD and a lot of the memories. He’s not getting the right help.

Why is that? Why do you think there’s a problem with getting treatment for PTSD?

There’s a couple of things. First, a lot of soldiers don’t want to be diagnosed with PTSD because it can prevent them from getting a lot of jobs, specifically federal jobs. A lot of them want to work for the government or become cops, and that diagnosis is apparently an impediment to getting those kinds of jobs. Second, PTSD is very expensive. It’s a long term kind of treatment. It costs the VA a lot of money so they don’t want to give that diagnosis. It’s a lot easier to say, “Hey, here’s a prescription for some anti-depressants.” That seems to be how they’re dealing with it. Even when it comes to physical injury, the VA is fighting people on disability payment. There’s levels of disability – from 100% disabled to various levels of partial disability. The VA fights them on the levels of disability. And vets wait for months and months for checks. The VA centers are just completely overwhelmed.

There was a Montel show recently on issues that the presidential candidates aren’t dealing with. Among them are the startling stats on suicide and violent crime rates among Iraq vets. Looking to November, what do you think about the candidates’ stances on the war? McCain say if we need to say in Iraq for 100 years, then we’re going to do that. Obama and Clinton, on the other hand, say they’re creating plans to get out. What’s your take on this?

McCain will be a continuation of Bush’s policy. That said, Obama and Clinton are not going to be able to withdraw troops as fast as they’d like. I’ve asked people in the military how long they think we’ll be in Iraq. I’ve gotten all sorts of responses, from 5 to 50 years. All of them have said that no matter who the next president is, logistically, we just can’t pack up and go. Realistically, I think we have another several years there – 5, 10 or 15.

A book was released recently called “The Three Trillion Dollar War.”  It’s all about the expense of Iraq including the cost of treating veterans for mental health problems and the like. So although there’s no realistic way of getting out of there in a year or two, it’s even crazier when you think about the cost of the war per month – in the billions.

What can teens do to get involved? How can they make a difference?

Support groups like Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) and Veterans for Common Sense. They need a lot of support because they’re the only organizations doing real work on veteran issues. The IAVA recently did a study on PTSD. They were the only ones willing to do it. Kids can also write or e-mail their congressman or senator and ask what they’re doing to help the vets. They can write directly to the soldiers to show their support. And it’s important that they keep people informed in any way – campaigns, letters, and articles. That’s why it’s so important that Do Something is covering it. You hear it in passing but it’s not the focus of the news at all.

For more information on Ethan Brown's book visit: http://ethan-brown.com/?p=199