The eight trailers, infested with bugs, were within hearing distance of bombs, machine gun blasts and the shouts and war cries of future combatants, men training to fight.
For nearly two years, these trailers were the home of trained psychiatrists,
hired by the military through a civilian contractor, who were treating servicemen
suffering from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD is an emotional illness
that usually develops as a result of a terribly frightening, life-threatening,
or otherwise highly unsafe experience. PTSD sufferers re-experience the traumatic
event or events in some way. They tend to avoid places, people, or other things
that remind them of the event and are exquisitely sensitive to normal life experiences.
Although this condition has likely existed since human beings have endured trauma,
PTSD has only been recognized as a formal diagnosis since 1980.
However, it was called by different names as early as the American Civil War, when combat veterans were referred to as suffering from "soldier's heart." In World War I, symptoms that were generally consistent with this syndrome were referred to as "combat fatigue." Soldiers who developed such symptoms in World War II were said to have "gross stress reaction," and many troops in Vietnam who had symptoms of what is now called PTSD were assessed as having "post-Vietnam syndrome." It has also been called "battle fatigue" and "shell shock."
Finally, in another location at Camp LeJeune, a permanent clinic was completed
in September 2009 and the trailers were abandoned. But, consider the plight
of those servicemen who were trying to find relief from their illness and being
treated under these conditions. One Marine patient, under the condition of anonymity,
said that his mind couldn’t focus on the treatment because he couldn’t
distinguish between the combat zone and the non-combat zone. Another said the
noises, from the training exercises being carried on nearby, were so distracting
that he almost ran from the building several times. ‘They shook me up
real bad’, was one of the comments.
\These allegations
were made public after the dismissal of a therapist who was working in the trailers.
The therapist was never given a reason for the termination although word came
through the military contractor that it came from the Navy. A representative
of the contractor said in an emailed statement that the therapist, a psychiatrist,
‘did not meet the government’s requirements in accordance with the
contract’. This came after their stringent hiring practices and eight
months on the job. In an interview with the Associated Press, the therapist
was of the opinion that from the beginning, the military should have rented
a building off-base.
He feels the reason
for his dismissal was his constant stream of memos to his military superiors
complaining of the shoddy treatment given to Marines returning from Iraq and
Afghanistan with PTSD.
In referring to the Fort Hood incident of November 5, 2009 where a psychiatrist
treating PTSD patients allegedly killed thirteen people and wounded thirty others,
he said, “Is there potential for another blowup?
Yes, indeed.”
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