http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=507855Is America sending battle-weary, clinically stressed soldiers back into the heat of Iraq?
By Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles
03 April 2004
Just ten days ago, Jason Gunn didn't think he was in any shape to be sent back to active duty in Iraq.
That's what the 24-year-old tank driver told his family, and what he told the commanders at his US military base in Germany. It is also what he told a team of psychiatrists at Heidelberg Hospital, who not only agreed with his assessment but issued a formal recommendation that he be kept with them for further treatment.
Back in November, Specialist Gunn had suffered devastating injuries up and down the left side of his body when a roadside bomb obliterated the Humvee he was driving on the north side of Baghdad. Over and above his physical wounds, he also had to deal with the trauma of the sergeant in the seat behind his being ripped to shreds in the explosion.
Soon he was displaying classic symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, (PTSD) - anxiety, insomnia interspersed with recurring nightmares, and extreme agitation. Army doctors put him on two different medications to lift his mood and suppress his bad dreams. But the gung-ho, happy-go-lucky, overtly fearless soldier who had existed before last November obstinately refused to resurface.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=507855--
We should ALL consider and protect the safety of our soldiers, which is exactly what they are trying to do for us.
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