From the Cop side: and the Soldier side: In recent months I've been hearing about a lot
of OIE/ OEF vets who are Enduring problems with pain or stress from the
wars. The things I learned as a cop helped me in dealing with my own
deployments….although the gang I deployed with to Bosnia and Iraq all admit
that we were changed by those experiences. I hope the change made us
better and stronger.
A nice Marine working dog at Camp Gannon, IZ 2005
Some of my cop training taught me that when you are involved in a
critical incident, to talk about it afterwards as soon as possible---with the
others who were in it with you. Laugh, cry, do your AAR (After Action Review)
and whatever, but talk about it…and if needed, hug each other. (Man
hugs are OK)
When a Soldier is wounded and everybody can see the wound, most
will show compassion and concern. A visible wound is something most
folks can understand. A non-visible wound of the mind is something
many people seem to have a hard time understanding.
“well, it’s all in your head, just act right and get over
it.”
When I hear a person who’s never been through something so
stressful say something like that, it makes me want to stop and help educate
that person. Some people are born with a mental problem; some gain
the problem from a traumatic event or events.
Either way it is NOT THEIR FAULT!
B17 Flying Fortress!
I just read an article about WWII B-17 Bomber crews flying over
Germany. Everyday they had to fly over anti-aircraft fire (think of
purposely walking through bombs exploding all around you while you are trying
to deliver your own bombs to a precise point on the ground.) That
took a lot of guts to go out over and over. But the comments the
survivors had were “I just kept thinking I was going to be OK.”
Well, I know our teams who went out in Baghdad 6 or 7 days a
week. They’d drive in a 3 Humvee convoy for about an hour or more
across the most dangerous place in the world at that time. They’d
take care of business, then turn around and drive back. The IEDs at
that time were easily cutting through the armor on the M1114 Humvees like a hot
knife through butter. If your vehicle got hit with a certain type of
IED, you were pretty much dead or
wounded badly.
Every time we went out, there was gun fire. Some of it
was just random shit, some of it was directed towards somebody else, and some
of it was directed at our teams. (I was only shot at once by some
asshole with an AK who couldn’t aim and mortared a dozen times.)
Stressful? Hell yes. How did I feel? I wasn’t
going to show my Soldiers any fear. But I had never done anything
scarier in my life (32 years of police work)… but I have to admit, I thought it
was cool. I was proud to go out with those teams. Most of
my teams went out a hell of a lot more than I did.
We were there a year, so if they went out 6 days a week for 11
months….do the math.
Maybe it wasn’t as bad as the WWII bomber crews.. . I mean they
got shot at every time they flew. But I think that the attitudes and
bravery were about the same. When I took over as the NCOIC (Non
Commissioned Officer in Charge) of the teams, I only had one person request to
not go out anymore. That request was answered by half a dozen other
Soldiers volunteering to go out. Great troops!
As tough as our jobs seemed, there were others who had jobs a lot tougher. I
have a friend who is a Combat Engineer. He did Route Clearance in
Afghanistan. This required them to go out on the roads that the
other troops were driving on and clear all the bombs the asshole insurgents
planted every day. Just think of the stress of looking for hidden
explosives that the person hiding got better and better at hiding. Then,
when you found it, trying to disarm it. That takes nerves of steel
and skills many people will never have.
Or my young friend who deployed at 19 years of age. He
went through more stuff in his first month than I have in my entire life….
Including having his Humvee blown out from under him and seeing his driver and
team leader die.
There are lots of them out there, but only about 2% of Americans
have served in recent wars. Not all of them are stressed out…but
just breathing the air in a war zone will change you forever.
For the Vets who are having some problems, don’t give
up. (Hell, just driving to and from my
job makes me wish I had a .50 cal gunner on my truck to clear the bad drivers
out of the way). Some injuries take time
to heal. This includes physical and non-physical
injuries. When I first got home from
Iraq, it took a year to figure out how to go to the VA for medical
treatment. (I stayed in my National
Guard unit, so I asked them what I needed to do…and they didn’t know.) I have since found out faster ways for others
to get into the VA—just ask VA.
Many Vets are having problems with drugs they were
prescribed. Some problems related to
addiction, some because of the side effects, and some because the drugs are
simply not doing much good.
One of the many things I did as a cop was drug prescription
forgery investigations. I had half a
dozen new cases every week from the small city I worked in. Almost all of them started out about the
same. A patient was issued a
prescription for some really strong stuff to take care of pain—usually from an
injury or surgery.
What I found out from talking to good doctors and pharmacist was
most of the really strong pain drugs SHOULD NOT be taken for a long period of
time- a person will get addicted to them.
Some get addicted easier than others.
So, when the real prescription for the drug ran out, the patient would
do things to keep getting them.
As a cop my goal was to determine if they were addicted to the
drugs or if they were selling them. If
they were selling them, I’d get a criminal complaint. If they were addicted, I’d try to lead them
down the path of getting help. Some cops
didn’t care and just filed complaints on them all and let God and the courts
sort it out.
So, anytime I got hurt, I’d ask the doctor if there was something
for the pain that was not addictive. Or,
I’d throw half of what they gave me away.
I did not want to get addicted.
So, now, I hear so many stories from groups I’m associated with
about Vets with problems. Many were
physically injured and often but not always, they suffer PTS (No “D). A
buddy of mine who did the same two deployments I was on, got wounded and sent
home from Iraq early. He had really big
balls to do what he did in Iraq. I made
sure he knew how I felt as soon as I saw him when the rest of us got home. He still has pain from his wound, but doesn’t
let that stop him from doing stuff.
My feeling is many doctors don’t try to heal a patients, but try
to “manage the pain” for them. I think
many doctors must think most people are too weak to handle the pain, so the
prescribe things that not only handle to pain, but cause major side effects.
I’m not a doctor, but whenever a doctor decides to prescribe something
for me, the first thing I ask: “Is this stuff something I can get addicted to
and what are the side effects?” If I don’t
like the answer, I’ll tell the doctor to pull something else out of their magic
bag.
Pain? Yep, I’ve some sort
of pain for many years. When I feel it,
it reminds me that I’m alive and what I was doing when I got the injury that’s
causing that pain of the day. Some were
from police work, some were from doing Army stuff….and most were because I wasn’t
smart enough to think I could get hurt or at the time the need to do what I was
doing was important (like responding to crimes in progress.)
About 25 years ago a doctor told me I would have to get out of
police work because of a back injury. I
didn’t listen because I liked being a cop and was too young to retire. Some think that’s being tough, nope….it’s being
stubborn. I never gave up, and I never
will. All things will heal, some take more
time.
