Posted on 11/12/2009 7:53:07 PM PST by ~Kim4VRWC's~
He says he killed a human being on his 27th birthday.
His words are louder than the clatter of customers on this Veterans Day at Panera Bread in Oak Park Mall.
But the 29-year-old Army veteran from Lenexa, with baby-face cheeks and crinkly eyes, tells it so matter-of-factly, so dead on bluntly, it sounds normal.
He was pulling night-time guard duty in Iraq. A bullet whizzed past his head. Through the scope on his M-16, he found the shooter on top of a building nearly a mile away. Watched as the shooter popped his head above the railing and swung up his weapon for another try. …
-snip-
“That’s one of the memories I brought back,” Hank Eaton says. “But I never told my wife much about it. I didn’t want her to get the secondary PTSD from me. This stuff is hard to hear. It can make you crazy.”
He’s read about post traumatic stress disorder. Tried to prepare for it before he deployed. Sought help for his symptoms after he left the Army. But since the shootings at Fort Hood last week, the worst of his own war experiences are streaming back in crystal-clear images, saddling him with insomnia and depression. Anger. Forgetfulness.
Eaton is not alone. The Fort Hood shootings have plunged untold numbers of other veterans into roiling, rekindling emotions that many thought they had learned how to shut away.
“We’ve had many, many, many calls,” says Thomas Demark, a staff psychiatrist who treats Eaton and others at the VA Medical Center in Kansas City. “These are calls from patients getting treatment. We’ve have several crisis situations.
-snip-
Demark worries, too, about veterans losing their trust in the people trying to help them.
(Excerpt) Read more at kansascity.com ...
"Demark worries, too, about veterans losing their trust in the people trying to help them."
ping...
ping..
Hasan didn’t just attack Ft.Hood. It was a crime against our entire military and they are feeling it. That is one of the reasons this needs to be a Capital Punishment case. Closure is very important for everyone affected.
AMEN!! And preventative measures! Communicate, and get people like HASAN out.
Get the PC out of the military, period. It’s BS!
It would be the same as if during WW2 a Japanese or Nazi had gone on a rampage in one of our bases.
Idiotic to let them anywhere near the military. But we all gotta die by PC.
A kill from a mile away with an M16?
I've heard PTSD is a living hell. One of the best outlets of healing is counseling.
I would certainly ask for a transfer if they aren't comfortable with their current Doc. They also need to keep in mind that this was a terrorist attack and Haman was a Jihadist, not your normal Armed Services doctor.
Which is another reason I believe this was all planned out to a T. The extra psychological warfare delivered through this attack knowing this animal treated our guys who were suffering with PTSD. Some of the weakest and most vulnerable in need of treatment,support and healing.
It makes me angry beyond words.
Maybe he blew off a 30 round magazine and something happened a mile away. He did not aim, pulled the trigger and hit a man at 1 mile with am M16. I would suspect some liberal measurement in his mind. It is no matter, 1 mile or 100 feet, it affects him the same.
If they were white dudes (soldiers) publicly expressing an attitude like hasan was beforehand, they’d have been dealt with immediately.
Maybe he blew off a 30 round magazine and something happened a mile away. He did not aim, pulled the trigger and hit a man at 1 mile with am M16. I would suspect some liberal measurement in his mind. It is no matter, 1 mile or 100 feet, it affects him the same.
Indeed! It is more than just him and his patients... It’s the bigger picture and how can we trust what the govt tells us? Do any of us trust them anymore? I want to know what the VFW says and demands as a result of this. Do they have any say as to how this is handled?
“a mile away with an M16?”
I noticed that, too. If this is a BS story I’d expect that the following.....
“I didn’t want her to get the secondary PTSD from me”
is seen as a way to incrementally further float the idea that Major Hasan is a PTSD victim instead of the ghoul Muslim Jihaddi Terrorist that he is in fact....
Psychiatric Times published an article back in 2003 describing the term related to mental health providers, while noting empirical evidence for this condition is weak. Most theories are descriptive (qualitative).:
Secondary trauma is defined as indirect exposure to traumaIf this is the case, then the entire U.S. population and most of the world suffer from secondary PTSD following 9-11. A study of Manhattan residents in weeks 5-6 following 9-11 revealed 20% of residents living close to the World Trade Center met criteria for probable PTSD. Thus, the majority of individuals directly exposed to the terrorist attacks in New York City did not meet criteria for PTSD.
through a firsthand account or narrative of a traumatic event.
Lenexa ...lived there for quite awhile.
But then you got people on the radio like Montel Williams, who has the nerve to say that the public might over react! Quote from thread: "Why is the left obsessed with the idea that the public might overreact to the terror incident at Fort Hood? Here, Air America libtalker Montel Williams suggests the reaction could rival the internment camps during World War II!"
This is getting out of hand, and because we don't have a great prez, a great leader, people like montel williams are talking out their behind..and he was in the Marines. He should know exactly what to say, think and feel about this.
Really? If I want to go to the mall, it’s oak park. I’m in western missouri..
fyi
“Still trying to figure out secondary PTSD.”
I’ve read up quite a bit on PTSD and though I’m no expert, I have never heard of ‘secondary PTSD’. PTSD isn’t something you can catch from someone else like a cold.
My friend, said to me that if all the victims were black, the entire nation would be in an uproar.
I haven’t heard of compassion or secondary ptsd. (I know of someone who had ptsd from rape...not the same as warfare ptsd of course, and I’m definitely not comparing which is worse) I wonder if the words are interchangeable? I have heard that people who witness a terrifying event can have ptsd, or if their loved ones experience a traumatic event, can have ptsd symptoms. That must be what it is..compassion or secondary.
okay, that was weird..you posted the psychiatric times info the same time I posted that maybe both labels are describing the same thing.
I think a perfect example of terrorizing people who have been through a traumatic event was when the airplane flew too close to the new york statue of liberty (?) earlier this year. (it was this year right?) It scared the you know what out of the new yorkers. People were leaving their buildings...it brought back the fears of 9-11...
I am convinced this story is a plant....and so is this secondary PTSD stuff.......Alkies need AA, while their wives need alanon, something quite different
the story DOES tell us, however, once again how crazy those combat vets are, and now the poor psych workerbees can be victims too.....a setup to victimize Hasan, and to avoid calling it what it is! This VA guy doing most of the talking in this piece works for the same PC gummint as all others denying that this was another Muslim Terror attack.....since the suicidal part of it failed, never let a crisis go to waste......this Hasan is of exactly the same mindset as any jihaddi suicide-bomber........
No people don’t catch it. From what I understand it’s like putting oneself in the place of the person who experienced the traumatic event..so much that they are scared it will happen again, or certain triggers will cause them to feel the same ‘scary’ feelings again.(unprofessional comment, don’t quote me)
from the link:
Eaton knew two of the soldiers killed at Fort Hood. He’d talked with them, had lunch with one, remembers how much they helped him. Thinking about them makes him grow quiet.“I’m having a really hard time wrapping my brain around this,” he says after a few moments. “Soldiers protect fellow soldiers, not hurt them. Especially a soldier who was someone you were supposed to trust.”
I don't know whether those New Yorkers have PTSD, or a very healthy fear of low flying aircraft in no-fly zones. I tend to believe the latter.
Yeah, I don’t know if it’s ptsd or a healthy fear. The latter would be more likely, the self-protection instinct. On the other hand, some of the people who were interviewed said it caused nightmares. I suspect some people’s mental fortitude is not as strong as others. Some people handle things better than others.
“But ignore that, and know the vets have suffered.”
Trust me.....collectively and all across the GI spectrum there is more desire to correct everything that fed into this terror attack than there is “suffering”....will the front-row-center survivors be affected? Sure.....some of them to a BIG degree, even....butI’d hold off on assigning some major group assessment based on this article and/or personal reflection.......c’mon....give our GI’s a little credit for not being the wimps and victims the press, the psych discipline, and PC-oriented gummint and even high ranking officers have done. They ARE NOT NEAR AS FRAGILE as far too many folks wish for you to believe for a variety of reasons and agendas.
I guess it’s just getting too late for me to think. What are the symptoms of compassion fatigue? Since you understand what it is...I’d like to start from there to get a grasp on this. :-p
NO, I don’t think of Vets as fragile at all. What I am mad about is the fact that this happened on our soil, at fort hood. That’s not suppose to happen. Maybe it’s US (civilians) that are fragile, and are not handling it well. I know it’s upset me something fierce. My friends/family who have served do NOT have the same feelings that I have. they are stoic. So I completely understand what you are saying. My apologies for offending you or any other vets..
In your opinion, what should the military do to prevent it from happening again.
If there was any attempt to spin it for sympathy for Hasan it fails to to do so. But you are right, like any news story, it is selective in making this soldier appear unstable or on the edge rather then focusing on the REAL maniac and his maniacal ideology. That and the fact that they failed to report that Haman's aim at terrorizing has been successful as this man's story demonstrates.
Very well stated! Righting the wrong in many areas, and I mean all over the spectrum from sentencing Haman to making absolutely certain this and nothing like this will ever happen again.
My focus has been on why it happened, how to prevent it, and to protect our soldiers. It never occurred to me that I wasn’t giving our guys enough credit. For that I feel bad. (there’s that word...FEEL) But, can we not say that the quote I made is bold is any less true? Soldiers are not suppose to do this to each other. hasan was not a true soldier was he? I don’t know what the poll results would be, but I am assuming the majority of soldiers do not believe hasan was one of them.
Interesting..Knowing how reporters are, and kcstar is very very liberal... it wouldn’t surprise me to see misquotes, errors and lies. I wonder if the guy interviewed recognizes what is attributed to him?
“there is more desire to correct everything that fed into this terror attack”
seriously, that’s ALL I need to know..
and with that, a good nite all.
Nurses who work in ICU or oncology can become “burned out” working daily with extremely ill patients, when they have rather infrequent opportunity to see their patients dramatically improve. I can equate this “burn out” with the term “compassion fatigue.” Same thing happens with family members caring for chronically debilitated loved ones.
“In your opinion, what should the military do to prevent it from happening again.”
REAL QUICK start unslaving our military from “PC”, by tossing those in High Command who preach and enforce it.....return it to being another world once inside the gates.....dump the social experiments....discipline commensurate to the mandate and mission......I caught the tail end of the brown-shoe Army, and I loved it......and most of all remember they are not victims.....allow them the Pride they earn and deserve by not victimizing them in accordance with the variety of agendas arrayed against them, some of which are only do-gooders-run-wild as opposed to genuine and malicious sabotage in other subtle and malicious agendas....just getting started here, so a good place to stop, LOL.....I know you and most mean well, but this shit about PTSD (we all know it really means nutjobs) is deja-vu-all-over-again.......it’s real, but it is not epidemic and is sometimes transient....best cured usually by developing ones own “coping” skills......hell, it can even be used to help cover over the fact that we just had another 911 day
My focus has been on why it happened, how to prevent it, and to protect our soldiers.
I know the point you are making. There was a dereliction of duty in regards to screening out Haman and making sure our soldiers were safe from him acting on his Jihad. Hasan was never an American soldier, he was a lying jihadist waiting for his opportunity as a SOA (soldier of allah) and that has left residual affects for some serving in our military and others who have served in the past. It must not be repeated!
That needs to be a bumper sticker.
Not to mention that if his weapon was equipped with a Gen II, PVS-4 night sight, which is standard issue, the max range that he can see is 400 yards in starlight and 600 yards in moonlight.
Well, would be happy to be on the firing squad or give the injection or throw the switch. PTSD be damned...
You caught that too. With an M-16 it's an impossibility.
One mile is 1760 yards.So to hit anything at a mile, he'd have to be aiming at the sky.
The bullet drop at 500 yards -45" to -47"
(Winchester ballistics for FMJ)
I’ve always thought the phrase “burned out” meant, just sick of doing it, heart is not in it anymore. It sounds like your definition probably means more than that. Primary Caregivers are under a tremendous amount of stress and pressure...
"Today, this army wife is mad as hell.
This afternoon I saw an interview on FOX with the Army Chief of Staff, General Casey.
During the Q&A period, every question and answer centered around Combat Stress and suicides among our military.
Not ONE person addressed the FACT that this was an individual practicing his view of Islamic Jihad.
--snip--
Hassan was a Muslim Fundamentalist Extremist. He did it to strike fear and grief in the hearts of Americans. He did it to hurt our military and to further the cause of Islam.
He didn’t do it because he had PTSD, compassion fatigue or combat stress. He is not your average everyday PVT Joe Snuffy.
He is a TERRORIST. He is a terrorist sympathizer. (As indicated by his internet postings.) He is a Muslim Extremist.
And you damn well know it.
Today I am ashamed of our media. I am ashamed of our POTUS. I am ashamed of our leadership.
Those of you who lack the ability to accept and report the truth of this situation are nothing more than cowards who are terrified of giving offense. You do a disservice to the brave men and women who have been killed and injured in your defense.
Stop insulting the solders by implying that they’re all capable of this due to the stress of war. Stop insulting our military by implying that they don’t take care of our troops.
Grow a pair and call it what it is - TERRORISM.
Straight to the point..and exactly what I meant. I would like to add that we should have a say so in all this... I mean after all, the military leaders who spew the PC crap, and allowed hasan to conintue on...have salaries that are paid with OUR TAX DOLLARS. We SHOULD have a say so, but do we? It's BS BS BS. (can we ever scream it loud enough)
At the same time, the "coward" thread linked above meant so much to read as well. Boy did she let'em have it.
Understood.
See #48 and #49....for clarification and to avoid repetition.
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