A SOLDIER'S PERSPECTIVE
THE WEB'S LEADING MILITARY BLOG SINCE 2004
PTSD is a fact of life for all humans. It’s even more of an issue with Soldiers. And it’s even more of an issue when those Soldiers go to combat. However, PTSD is not a given. Even the most liberal estimates put the number of PTSD cases at a little above a third of troops that are affected.
In the Army, the time we spend in classes has increased exponentially in recent years. We sit through classes on lawnmower safety, suicide prevention, motorcycle safety, equal opportunity, BBQ safety, trafficking in humans, reintegration training, travel card training, OPSEC training, anti-terrorism training, sexual assault training, risk assessment training, hot/cold weather training, etc. Seriously, I could literally keep going for a few paragraphs.
Now, the Army is adding even more training to help us cope with our emotions. Military officials will require all 1.1 million of us to take intensive training in emotional resiliency. Yup, emotional resiliency. According to the New York Times:
The training, the first of its kind in the military, is meant to improve performance in combat and head off the mental health problems, including depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide, that plague about one-fifth of troops returning from Afghanistan and Iraq.
Active-duty soldiers, reservists and members of the National Guard will receive the training, which will also be available to their family members and to civilian employees.
Seriously, when will enough be enough? I understand that we need to address PTSD and mental health issues, but we don’t need to be taught how to be touchy-feely. We don’t need classes to help us get in touch with our inner Richard Simmons. We’re the freakin’ United States Army, the roughest, toughest, most lethal combat force in the world and now we’re going to train our warriors how to be…emotional. Could this be the first in helping us to accept the eventual repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy?
I haven’t seen anything official on this yet, so I probably shouldn’t be so critical. But, based on the NY Times article, I can’t help but be a little reserved about this new “training.” What do you think?
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Army Review of PTSD Will Reinforce Combat Veterans Not to Seek Help
CJ, we thank you for your service and all you have been through and ho
Army Review of PTSD Will Reinforce Combat Veterans Not to Seek Help
Who would WANT a PTSD diagnosis? Only a fraud would. I would give an
Anatomy of a Military Dating Scam
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Jack
I think this is another way for the Army to check a box and say they did their duty. We all know that once you go to a training session, you are completely proficient in whatever class you just slept through. If you have the certificate, the responsibility rests on your shoulders. And nobody walks away without a certificate.
Russ Conrad
As an instructor at the Command & General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, it falls to me to administer some of this training to our Army leaders. Like you, I tend to roll my eyes at much of our mandatory training. However, the resiliency concept is and effort to prevent PTSD and suicide from happening. The problem the Army faces is that the deployments and high OPTEMPO will not go away soon. Rather than doing nothing to address the resultant problems, the Army is trying to prevent them from happening. It is a tough thing to accomplish, and this type of training is difficult to do effectively. It is better than doing nothing.
CJ
Sir, I hear ya. We can’t do nothing. But, we have to also recognize that we’re quickly overpowering troops with all this training to combat PTSD and suicide. We’ve already got all this training and I’d be a liar if I said none of it worked. However, we leaders need to understand that there is a breaking point to which no amount of training will be effective.
I draw your attention to the EO training. While being very good, effective training, it hasn’t exactly ended the problem by any stretch. Soldiers have been so bombarded with this training month after month that it’s more tolerated and check the block in their minds.
More training isn’t the answer to PTSD and suicide prevention. Leaders who care about their troops is the answer! We need leaders to take a personal interest in the well-being of their troops. We need leaders to look their troops in the eye and mean it when they say, “if you need anything, call me.” I just don’t think that more training geared towards reaching out to our inner child is going to help. I understand that “even if it saves one life, it’s worth it” but what about the rest who just frustrated with having to their missions on hold while they are forced to complete MORE mandatory training.
In my experience, troops are better off being left to do their jobs. If we keep them busy, trained, and cared for it will do far more than someone standing up and reading from a powerpoint slideshow – which we all know is what this will eventually delve into. Army leadership legitimately cares about the health and welfare of our Warriors, but I just think we’re going about this the wrong way. The answer isn’t in more mandatory training and “feel good” emotional focus groups. It’s in empowering our NCOs and holding them to the standard they’ve dedicated their lives to: “accomplishment of my mission and the welfare of my Soldiers.”
Unfortunately, we just aren’t doing a good enough job. We aren’t going into the barracks like we used to. We aren’t enforcing uniform and performance standards. We don’t know the names of spouses and children or birthdates of our troops. We aren’t counseling regularly. We aren’t making our training tough enough to prepare them for what is to come. Those are the areas that will help prevent troops from suffering PTSD and/or suicidal thoughts. No amount of training will EVER replace that personal touch of a brother or sister in arms looking you in the eye and asking if you’re okay!
Doc Hal
Well said, CJ. Let me take you back in history. As an enlisted troop (in the Navy) back during the Vietnam era (and yes, I did serve there…two tours) I know that we had some a**holes for officers. However, having said that, I think my enlisted time made me a BETTER officer for the experience. After being commissioned, and having served my obligatory time as a division officer (company grade for you Army guys) I became a department head, still as a company grade officer serving in a field grade officer’s billet. When we deployed, ALL my troops had my wife’s home phone number. If their wives/girlfriends, etc., needed someone to deal with the system, they called. She/we did deal with some issues like when one of my guys left his wife with no money and no allotment…took care of THAT one real fast!
Now, another story which deals with the topic at hand. As a field grade officer, department head on a nuke cruiser, after a suicide, I was given the singular “privilege” of doing the JAGMAN investigation. One of the “findings” was that the command had not conducted Suicide Prevention Training within the past year. I was wrong. When the CO dragged me to his stateroom and proved it to me, I readily admitted that I was wrong but it still went into the JAGMAN report as an inaccurate finding in his rebuttal or “endorsement.” My point here is that if I, as a department head, didn’t remember that this training had taken place within the past SIX months, how much affect did it have on the crew? It’s just another BOX to check.
We overload our troops with unnecessary BS training to deal with the social issues and not enough that deals with the kill or be killed issues. Enough with the social engineering crap. Teach our troops to FIGHT! Yeah, there’s more to it, but…
Doc
CWO George Samek US Army Retired
I guess the “Green Machine” has come full circle..In the “Brown Boot Army” we had to watch training films on the proper way to use a “Pro Kit” for sexual safety
There is not to many ways to install a condom and when they have to train troops to deal with the pain of killing and being killed I guess its “Welcome to the US Postal Service.”
PTSD is an important issue..and I do not make light of it, as I have been blessed with it myself. Each military member needs to learn that anything that did not kill you on the spot will make you stronger..If you face it and deal with it. Drugs are a crutch and like a crutch should be tempory. The real cure comes from within.
The military has mouthed support of those who report mental issues and I hope they will learn to listen and allow those who seek help not to fear the loss of there careers.
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Beverly Perlson
My parents taught us that what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.
This is a different time zone we are living in now…up to the future! God help us.
I believe that if these Heroes coming home now were treated like the Heroes they are, if we struck up the band in every town when they came home, if the daily triumphs of our Heroes over there, along with news of every Hero we lost, was published on the front page of every newspaper everyday, as it should be, I do not believe PTSD would be as prevalent as it is. This war our Soldiers are fighting IS THE DEFINING MOMENT of the future of this country. Contextual is the word for all of this and my father and mother were lucky enough to have lived during the greatest generation. It was the greatest generation because Americans loved and appreciated their liberty and freedom, never took it for granted, and they idolized Heroes like my father that protected their way of life (my dad served in the Navy in WWII). My Brother served in Vietnam and nutcases started running thru the streets of this country calling these brave Heroes baby killers and murderers…I was only 13 then but if I was older, I would have run through the streets calling them TRAITORS, because that is what you are when you betray those who fight to protect and defnd you!
My dad and mom lived the good old days! We need to bring those days back, for the preservation of this great country and for these brave men and women who know that there are butchers out there who want to take our way of life away from us!
We need a top to bottom change in this country and I’m sorry that our brave men and women of our military are in this flux. It needs to stop! I propose and believe that our Soldiers coming home would be well if they were treated as the HEROES they are. So knock yourself out America and Hug them, thank them and support them, before the Burka people knock us all out. Then you all will be screaming for a Soldier, just as you hailed my Son a Hero right after 9/11!!!!
I believe that America is waking up and you can count on me to do my best to wake them up!
Beverly Perlson
The Band of Mothers
http://www.thebandofmothers.com
See my website for our Stand for our Troops in Washington, DC on Sept 9th and 10th!
AirmanMom
Outstanding post!
~AM
Debi Bohannan
The USA has survived good Presidents and bad ones, thanks to our military. Those without military experience are the worst – they tend to issue inanely burdensome orders and appoint spineless decision-makers in Defense, who serve the administration, rather than the troops. The PCness of this one is maddening!
It would make far too much common sense to require a Commander-in-Chief have military training.
Two of my sons served in the US Military. The oldest (3 combat tours) has a bad case of PTSD and VA is working with him. Until now, he just had to ‘suck it up, soldier’.
This sounds like just more political b.s for the troops from a campaign donor/appointee who needs to ‘look busy’. If anyone needs this type training, it is the officer who doesn’t know how to respond ON THE BATTLEFIELD.
OK Military Mom
pacific_waters
There may be an upside, “Gentlemen, we have called off the war for training in how to recognize and identify a war.”
Marcus
CJ, there is a horrible typo in your post. Allow me to fix it for you.
We’re the freakin’ United States Army, the second roughest, second toughest,second most lethal combat force in the world behind the Marine Corps and now we’re going to train our warriors how to be…emotional.
Doc Hal
Sorry, CJ, he’s gotcha!
Doc
Dyan
Hi guys, I am not in the military, even though i do work with them, but it seems to me that they need less classrooms,talk, and paperwork, and much more realistic tough training.Which is how i came across this site, actually.I am writing a paper on can realistic physical simulation(eg ,using bloodied up apmutees,pyro bombs going of around you, dust and smoke all around so you cant see,guys with opfor weapons shooting at you when you least expect it, ect)prevent PTSD? It seems to me that obviosly nothing can “beat being there’ but if you create highly realistic training simulations, one that induces fear and stress , it may go a long way to help prepare troops for what they encounterover there.