McMahon: Camp Trauma
May 19, 2010, 6:43 PM | Updated: Jun 5, 2012, 3:27 am
Of all the conditions, injuries and diseases that could send U.S. military personnel to a hospital what do you think would be No. 1 — fatigue, shrapnel wounds, infections? Nope! Those are the ones we see in the war movies. In real life, according to the Pentagon, more of our troops are hospitalized because of mental health disorders than anything else.
We never saw that with John Wayne, did we? But that’s apparently what happens after nine years of war. It appears that way because the numbers have continued to increase until hitting historic highs.
You want to know how serious this is overall? Depression, substance abuse, anxiety and post traumatic stress disorder cost the Pentagon 488 years of lost duty in 2009 alone.
In the middle ages, they just thought soldiers were possessed. In WWI, it was called shell-shocked, and the families didn’t discuss Uncle Andrew. But now it’s nearing an epidemic and so are the numbers of suicides and family murders. If you have someone coming home from combat, please remember how some of the worst war injuries leave only invisible scars.
