Posted on 11/12/2009 7:53:07 PM PST by Freedom2specul8
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-
Thats one of the memories I brought back, Hank Eaton says. But I never told my wife much about it. I didnt want her to get the secondary PTSD from me. This stuff is hard to hear. It can make you crazy.
Hes 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.
Weve 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. Weve 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 ...
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. Hed talked with them, had lunch with one, remembers how much they helped him. Thinking about them makes him grow quiet.Im 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
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