Anger Management 101

--Charles Barsotti

Don't talk to me for about a week
I'm sorry it just hurts to explain
There's something going on that makes my guts ache
I got guilt I got fear I got regret
I'm just a panic stricken waste I'm such a jerk
--I'm Free Now, Morphine
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There are three distinguishing adjectives for describing a combat arms soldier -- hostile, agile and mobile.

These are the qualities needed to complete the mission. Only three things: shoot, move and communicate. Being hostile and being a shooter is usually equated with anger. In our society, anger and destruction are also sanctioned impulses for boys, unlike say, fear or compassion. (We're not talking extreme West Coast here.) Hence G.I. Joe and Tonka trucks. Barney ("I Love You") and the like are still considered pretty fey.

So Ranger finds himself as a fully aged adult male wavering between a non-emotional state and anger. If he is feeling really emotional, the anger may become rage. He is writing about this because several people have pointed his anger out to him recently. It must be the residue of New Year's good cheer.

Aggression and anger are lauded in the military arena, but not so much in the civilian, outside of cutthroat boardrooms. He is not alone in his anger; he and many of his fellow angry veterans could fill a stadium or two. Anger and rage -- combine these and you have a Ranger.

Rangers are selected and trained to be violent. We are promoted and rewarded with medals for our hostile nature, and ejected from active service without decompression or deprogramming, and expected to become loving, feeling beings. Well, I'm not, and I'm tired of being apologetic for that fact.

Society acts dumbfounded when the Ft. Carson, Colorado, veterans showed a spike in their rates of murder and other violent crimes (A Focus on Violence by Returning GI's.) All vets came by their attitudes honestly so why harass them for their honest reaction, which is often rage and hostility? This is not to exonerate criminals for their crimes, but reintegration does not just happen, and the psychiatric community is often clueless, and certainly underfunded.

If society doesn't want to deal with and accept this, then let's develop a new class of Terminators, a true warrior class a la the Greek concept, separate from society.

Until then you have a lot of Rangers, and they are not always able to channelize their anger once back in any productive manner.

You're a Problem If We Say You Are

I think Mr. Mellish is a traitor to this country because
his views are different from the views of the President
and others of his kind.

Differences of opinion should be tolerated,
but not when they're too different.
Then he becomes a subversive mother.

Fielding Mellish: You cannot bash in the head of an American citizen
without written permission from the State Department.

--Bananas (1971), Woody Allen
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Recent Pentagon reports say more than 22,000 troops have been discharged from the military since 2001 due to personality disorders. Many veterans believe that such diagnoses are often made to avoid making disability payments to troops who are actually suffering Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

From the September VFW magazine:

"'If you have a combat tour and you are getting labeled as a personality disorder, there is something wrong.' said Jeff Peskoff, a 10-year Army vet who recently quit his job 'in disgust' as a civilian employee at Ft. Carson in Colorado. 'It's a quick way to get rid of that body and bring in another body. And it's a quick way to save money.'

"Peskoff told ABC News that over several months he processed hundreds of personality disorder discharges of combat vets who he believed were suffering from PTSD."

"A letter from 31 senators to Defense Secretary Robert Gates called for an investigation" (22,000 Troops Discharged with "Personality Disorders.)

Many soldiers severed from service by a "Chapter 5-13" — "separation because of personality disorder" — are not informed that they will lose medical benefits, and may have to pay back enlistment bonuses, as well. The Army defines Ch. 5-13 as a preexisting "maladaptive pattern of behavior of long duration" that interferes with the soldier's ability to perform his duties.

"In practical terms, this diagnosis means the personality disorder existed before military service, and therefore medical care and disability payments are not the military's responsibility. But some veterans and veterans' advocates have been vocal in their belief that personality disorder is being misdiagnosed in combat veterans "(Questionable Treatment for Some Iraq Heroes.)

This gambit is a serious breech of trust on the part of the Army bureaucracy. It is entirely unfair to prey upon combat veterans by diagnosing preexisting personality disorders after the completion of a combat tour. Adequate psychological testing prior to enlistment would filter a great percentage of unfit personnel.

These soldiers deserve an even-handed approach to both service connected PTSD and preexisting disorders. Psychologists are not personnel management tools.

A Two-fer

No Child Left Behind, Christopher Kaufman

The best is yet to come, and won't that be fine
You think you've seen the sun, but you ain't seen it shine
--The Best is Yet to Come, Frank Sinatra

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A two-fer under the category "Close the barn door before the horse gets out," courtesy our August VFW magazine:

First, we are told troops are battling bacterial and parasitic infections and diseases, some linked to sand fly bites. More than 600 troops who have had arms or legs amputated were found to have had one of four bacterial infections which are highly resistant to antibiotics.

The Army appropriated $1.6 million in February '07 to a research team at the University of Missouri to study the drug-resistant infections. Study leader James Calhoun said, "Ultimately, this research could mean fewer extremity infections, fewer surgeries and fewer amputations." Why are they looking into this on the back end?

About 2,500 troops have contracted leishmaniasis, a disease is characterized by reddish skin ulcers, and which can attack internal organs and become fatal, if untreated.

"The military recommends the troops use bed nets to ward off the flies. . .Troops also are urged to use the insect repellent DEET. . ." So you may choose your poison, as DEET is a powerful neurotoxin in its own right.

Why the sheepish mention now of "3,000 troops serving in Iraq or Afghanistan [who] have "gotten sick" from these bacterial strains and parasites? The knowledge of insect-borne disease in this region is not a news flash. Special Forces Area Study Handbooks have reported on them since at least the mid-1960's.

It is 2007, and the military is only now getting around to address the issue? Has anybody got his hand on the rudder, or is our warship completely at the mercy of the current? Perhaps if the folks in Washington were the ones getting sick from these pesky flies, and having their body parts lopped off as a result, they might step up the tempo.

Medical eventualities should be a pre-planning issue rather than an afterthought. Isn't that why the Area Studies and Handbooks are commissioned? These should be required reading before, rather than after, the start of an elective war.

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Second, a report on the "Crude" Handling of PTSD veterans includes a sidebar article entitled, "Shortage of Psychologists 'Alarming'."

The American Psychological Association reported in April '07 a "40% shortage of active duty clinical psychologists" and an "alarming pace" of attrition, with the total number of active-duty psychologists in the armed forces having dropped to a meager total of 350.

It is criminal to start an elective war without the necessary medical assets to adequately support the troops in a realistic manner. Psychologists are a necessary medical asset.