Hell of war still haunts Iraq vets
Many struggle with mental health disorders, homelessness As fight drags on, questions being raised about true costMany struggle with mental health disorders, homelessness
As fight drags on, questions being raised about true cost
Mar. 20, 2006. 01:00 AM
TIM HARPER
WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON—Every day, Staff Sgt. Eugene Simpson is back in the pocket, looking for the open receiver downfield.
In his mind, he's there again, reliving his days as a high school football quarterback, a junior college cornerback and a point guard on the basketball team.
He can't suppress a grin, and that's the incongruous moment in his story, because this 29-year-old father of four with the upper body physique of the athlete he once was is sitting in his wheelchair in Washington's Veterans Administration hospital, paralyzed from the waist down, a graduate of the Iraq war, Class of 2004.
"I can't let this beat me," he says. "It's a competition, it's that competition left over from my days in sports."
Almost on the other side of the country, Sgt. Michael Sarro, Iraq war, Class of 2005, is lying in a hospital bed in Texas, his 10th or 11th time back there — he's lost count — talking about the nights, when darkness rolls in, and you're all alone, with nothing but time to think, about yourself, about what happened, about why it happened.
"Some of those things I've thought or felt, I'm not sure I want the guys I know to read about," he says. "You know, the military, it's really the biggest tough guy convention you'll find ... you have to keep that tough guy outlook."
No one could ever question the toughness of Simpson or Sarro, two of the more than 17,000 injured Iraq war veterans, many battling back from horrific injuries in this country as it marks the third anniversary of the invasion of Iraq.
But as the fight drags on, there are questions about the cost of this war to a generation of young men and women.
There are even larger questions about the psychological cost to those who have returned and the tens of thousands who will someday return to try to reintegrate into everyday life here.
By some estimates, a U.S. Senate committee was recently told, one in three of the homeless in America are veterans, and more and more they are young veterans of Afghanistan or the two Iraq campaigns.
A study published in the Journal of American Medicine last month concluded about one-third of Iraq war veterans seek mental health help upon their return. The study of 222,620 veterans found the risk for serious mental problems was much higher in Iraq veterans than those returned from Afghanistan or other conflicts.
The study found 80 per cent of those who were diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) reported witnessing persons being wounded or killed or being involved in combat in which they fired their weapons.
"For those who survive, they return home having seen hellish things," says Dave Uchic, a spokesperson for Paralyzed Veterans of America.
"They are serving in a constant state of stress. There is no front. It is urban warfare. What if Iraq tips to civil war? They could witness massacres or huge waves of suicide bombings.
"This is a terrible thing they have to deal with over there. But this could get much worse when more and more start coming home."
Canada now has about 2,200 troops stationed in Afghanistan and is starting to suffer casualties. The U.S. experience may serve as a precursor to the types of problems Canadian veterans could face when they return home.
Tom Cray of the U.S. National Coalition for Homeless Veterans told a congressional committee that there are 200,000 veterans living on American streets on any given night, but his network is seeing more and more veterans from this Iraq war, many of them suffering PTSD, on the streets. [...]
As fight drags on, questions being raised about true cost
Mar. 20, 2006. 01:00 AM
TIM HARPER
WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON—Every day, Staff Sgt. Eugene Simpson is back in the pocket, looking for the open receiver downfield.
In his mind, he's there again, reliving his days as a high school football quarterback, a junior college cornerback and a point guard on the basketball team.
He can't suppress a grin, and that's the incongruous moment in his story, because this 29-year-old father of four with the upper body physique of the athlete he once was is sitting in his wheelchair in Washington's Veterans Administration hospital, paralyzed from the waist down, a graduate of the Iraq war, Class of 2004.
"I can't let this beat me," he says. "It's a competition, it's that competition left over from my days in sports."
Almost on the other side of the country, Sgt. Michael Sarro, Iraq war, Class of 2005, is lying in a hospital bed in Texas, his 10th or 11th time back there — he's lost count — talking about the nights, when darkness rolls in, and you're all alone, with nothing but time to think, about yourself, about what happened, about why it happened.
"Some of those things I've thought or felt, I'm not sure I want the guys I know to read about," he says. "You know, the military, it's really the biggest tough guy convention you'll find ... you have to keep that tough guy outlook."
No one could ever question the toughness of Simpson or Sarro, two of the more than 17,000 injured Iraq war veterans, many battling back from horrific injuries in this country as it marks the third anniversary of the invasion of Iraq.
But as the fight drags on, there are questions about the cost of this war to a generation of young men and women.
There are even larger questions about the psychological cost to those who have returned and the tens of thousands who will someday return to try to reintegrate into everyday life here.
By some estimates, a U.S. Senate committee was recently told, one in three of the homeless in America are veterans, and more and more they are young veterans of Afghanistan or the two Iraq campaigns.
A study published in the Journal of American Medicine last month concluded about one-third of Iraq war veterans seek mental health help upon their return. The study of 222,620 veterans found the risk for serious mental problems was much higher in Iraq veterans than those returned from Afghanistan or other conflicts.
The study found 80 per cent of those who were diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) reported witnessing persons being wounded or killed or being involved in combat in which they fired their weapons.
"For those who survive, they return home having seen hellish things," says Dave Uchic, a spokesperson for Paralyzed Veterans of America.
"They are serving in a constant state of stress. There is no front. It is urban warfare. What if Iraq tips to civil war? They could witness massacres or huge waves of suicide bombings.
"This is a terrible thing they have to deal with over there. But this could get much worse when more and more start coming home."
Canada now has about 2,200 troops stationed in Afghanistan and is starting to suffer casualties. The U.S. experience may serve as a precursor to the types of problems Canadian veterans could face when they return home.
Tom Cray of the U.S. National Coalition for Homeless Veterans told a congressional committee that there are 200,000 veterans living on American streets on any given night, but his network is seeing more and more veterans from this Iraq war, many of them suffering PTSD, on the streets. [...]
posted by Traveller at
9:03 a.m.
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