This article, by Nicolaus Mills, was distributed by the New York Newsday, January 16, 2009
On Aug. 10, 1943, Gen. George Patton nearly ended his World War II army career when he slapped a soldier.
"Your nerves, hell; you are just a goddamned coward," Patton shouted at the soldier, Pvt. Paul G. Bennett, a gunner who had been sent to the 93rd Evacuation Hospital in Sicily, appearing "confused, weak, and listless." In Patton's judgment Bennett, who had enlisted before Pearl Harbor, was trying to escape battle. He had no business being treated alongside men with actual physical injuries.
In the new volunteer army, generals don't slap privates any more, but the military has not abandoned Patton's view of what constitutes a genuine wound. The Pentagon recently announced that it will not award the Purple Heart to veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder because it is not a physical injury. PTSD will continue to have the stigma Patton associated with psychological wounds.
It shouldn't. Research on Long Island veterans shows that well before the recent government ruling, PTSD had already reached epidemic proportions. A 2007 study found that 20 percent of those seeking help at Northport Veterans Affairs Medical Center, the main veterans' facility here, were suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
If Pentagon officials believe that PTSD is a sign of personal weakness, all they need to do is read Medal of Honor winner and former senator Bob Kerrey's autobiography, in which he writes of his post-Vietnam state of mind: "There were dark times when this grief would rise in my chest like hot water. I would become short of breath and feel that death was a better option than living."
The Pentagon and military traditionalists may worry that there's no way to tell if someone with post-traumatic stress disorder is faking or truly suffering. Perhaps they fear that undeserving troops would claim Purple Heart status if they had the chance. But would they?
For years, the Pentagon has claimed that we don't need a draft because our all-volunteer military is the best-motivated and most-skilled one that America has ever had. Does the Pentagon really think, then, that men and women who have patriotically served the country in Iraq and Afghanistan are going to rush out to put one over on their country by claiming mental illness?
Or, given the state of the economy, is the primary worry about the cost of awarding more Purple Hearts? The honor entitles vets to enhanced benefits - they get higher priority when it comes to appointments at VA hospitals, and they are exempt from co-payments for both inpatient and outpatient care. Given that, according to a 2008 Rand Corp. study, an estimated 300,000 veterans currently suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder or major depression, that's a hefty bill.
Whatever the reason for the ruling, it's time for a change. We have come a long way from when PTSD was called "shell shock" or "battle fatigue." The least we can do is let our vets benefit from the advances that have been made in how we view the psychological impact of modern warfare.
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