SBAND Seminar Materials 2013 Free Ethics: Echoes of War The Combat Veteran | Page 7

experts
 debate
 the
 numbers,
 among
 the
 3.5
 million
 Americans
 who
 served
 in
 Vietnam,
  estimates
 of
 psychiatric
 casualties
 range
 from
 1,000,000
 to
 1,500,000
 cases.18
  Twentieth
 century
 democracies
 have
 been
 better
 than
 most
 at
 admitting
 and
  dealing
 with
 their
 combat
 psychiatric
 casualties.

 Information
 from
 non-­?Western
 sources
 is
  extremely
 limited,
 but
 we
 now
 know
 that
 America’s
 experience
 is
 representative
 of
 a
  universal
 cost
 of
 modern,
 protracted
 warfare.19

 Nations
 around
 the
 world
 have
  experienced
 similar
 mass
 psychiatric
 casualties,
 but
 many
 have
 simply
 driven
 these
  casualties
 into
 battle
 at
 bayonet
 point,
 shooting
 those
 who
 refused
 or
 were
 unable
 to
  continue.20

D. PTSD
 Today

  PTSD
 was
 not
 formally
 recognized
 by
 the
 psychiatric
 community
 and,
 more
  importantly,
 the
 Veterans
 Administration,
 until
 1980,
 too
 late
 for
 many
 psychologically
  injured
 Vietnam
 veterans.

 Their
 lives
 and
 their
 trust
 in
 the
 system
 were
 often
 shattered
 by
  that
 time
 and
 many
 refused
 treatment
 when
 and
 if
 it
 was
 eventually
 offered.

 Ultimately,
 31
  percent
 of
 male
 Vietnam
 veterans
 and
 27
 percent
 of
 female
 Vietnam
 veterans
 have
 had
  PTSD
 in
 their
 lifetime.21

  1. PTSD’s
 Stigma
  Though
 PTSD
 has
 been
 informally
 recognized
 for
 millennia,
 approaches
 to
 dealing

with
 it
 have
 varied
 widely.

 After
 battle,
 many
 Native
 American
 and
 other
 tribal
 societies
  segregated
 their
 warriors
 from
 the
 rest
 of
 the
 tribe,
 sometimes
 for
 weeks,
 where
 they
 were
  physically
 cleansed
 of
 the
 blood
 from
 battle,
 and
 spiritually
 cleansed
 of
 their
 traumatic
  experiences.

 Some
 of
 the
 rituals
 were
 intended
 to
 transfer
 to
 the
 stain
 of
 “bloodguilt”
 from
  the
 warrior
 to
 his
 people
 as
 a
 whole.

 This
 shared
 responsibility
 was
 believed
 to
 lift
 the
  spiritual
 weight
 of
 combat
 from
 the
 shoulders
 of
 the
 warrior
 and
 to
 ease
 his
 transition
 back

 Id.

 Id.
  20
 Id.
  21
 Saint
 Louis
 Area
 Iraq
 War
 Veterans,
 Learning
 from
 Vietnam
 –
 Facts
 About
 Trauma,
 Iraq,
 and
 Afghanistan
 (2007),
  http://s tliraqwarvets.wordpress.com/2007/03/26/learning-­?from-­?vietnam-­?facts-­?about-­?trauma-­?iraq-­?and-­? afghanistan/
 (citing
 National
 Center
 for
 Post-­?Traumatic
 Stress
 Disorder
 and
 The
 U.S.
 Department
 of
 Veterans
  Affairs).

19 18

7