My review from the July, 2016 Sturbridge Times Magazine.
You may have heard the statistic that 22 veterans kill
themselves a day. From that stat, one
may get the idea of a national crisis and the depth of the problem, or maybe
not. It turns out that the majority of
that number are Vietnam vets. As a
qualifier, that changes the discussion from an immediate problem for recent
servicemen and women to something that could have other reasons.
Still, a number around ten is a problem here and now. Is anyone noticing? Sebastian Junger is. Junger is a well known author of many books
on various subjects from his most famous The Perfect Storm, to modern
warfare and other subjects. He has been
embedded many times with military forces and is a man of adventure. His personal encounter with horror led him to
publish Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging.
Junger found himself not immune to the stress of life
following a stint as a combat reporter.
Almost a year before 911, he suffered a panic attack in the New York
Subway. Junger had been in Afghanistan
covering battle between the Taliban, of whom you have heard of by now, and the
Northern Alliance of Ahmad Shah Massoud.
It was a a brutal war well before we became involved.
Yet here back home, in maybe not the world's most pleasant
venue, but still not a war zone, he fell apart.
Sebastian has been thinking about it, to say the least. As bad as the momentary event was, he
recovered. Junger had had Post Traumatic
Stress Disorder or PTSD, which is in the news lately so you might have heard
about it. His occurrence was short-term
(acute) and he had several over time and then they stopped.
The author did not know what it was and did not connect it to
his time in a combat environment. It was
in a conversation with a psychotherapist at a picnic that he realized what had
happened.
PTSD is part of the evolutionary tool kit. Heightened awareness in an emergency
situation is just what one needs. On the
subway, though, it might not be as helpful.
The author also found out a lot facts about combat and
PTSD. Some of them are surprising. Only about 20% suffer it long term and
chronically. Something else he
discovered, American troops take a third as many casualties as in Vietnam, but
now claim three times the number of disabilities. He has other stats about the problem, but also
many insights.
If you go through battle and end up with the chronic form of
the disorder, you probably had problems before combat. In fact, combatants are no more likely than
vets who have not been under fire to kill themselves. So what is it all about? Why would we go to pieces after coming home?
Junger explores a “civilization and its discontents
theme.” We who live in a so-called
civilized society would seem to have it better than the “savages.” Not all felt the same.
The author cites the writings of Ben Franklin on the
subject. According to Dr. Franklin, as
quoted by Junger, “”White captives who were liberated from the Indians were
almost impossible to keep at home : “Tho' ransomed by their friends, and
treated with all imaginable tenderness to prevail with them to stay among the
English, yet in a short time they become disgusted with our manner of
life...and take the first good opportunity of escaping again into the woods.””
In case you are wondering, the operative word here is
the title of the book. The aboriginal inhabitants of the continent
lived in tribes and Junger wants to make a point. Men in wars live and fight with comrades in
cohesive groups, depending on each other for survival. He does not call them tribes exactly in that
situation, but why not?
They come home to “Thank you for your service” and some rah
rah stuff, but little else. That unit
esprit is gone and they are on their own.
Many lose it. Junger has seen it
elsewhere. The Siege of Sarajevo saw
solidarity amongst the besieged. That
camaraderie evaporated with peace and is mourned.
The author cites Israel as a place with little diagnosed
PTSD. That most of that nation are at
some time in the army and have a greater fellow feeling has something to do
with it. Men and women are both subject
to service. Somehow it does not seem
that universal conscription is going to happen here.
That would be a solution to PTSD in the military. After all, if all the kids of the rich and
powerful and the politicians were drafted and had to learn to low crawl through
the mud with the sons and daughters of trailer park denizens, our wars would
end before Ivanka or Chelsea lost a nail.
