PTSD-There were a minority in my son’s platoon who said they suffered from it within a month after arriving in Afghanistan. One Soldier had never been outside of the wire. It is something that is hard to define and cannot be discounted.
However, I would like to see if there is a correlation between the diagnosis and the treatment using Psycho-tropic anti-depressants and the prescribed drug cocktails involved. These drugs not taken properly or not constantly monitored can cause suicidal thoughts and violent behavior.
Page two of the Washington Post article says that he saw eight of his Marine’s dead bodies a few minutes after they were killed. A good leader loves his Soldiers. I believe our word “Commander” comes from the Sanskrit words meaning “The one to whom we entrust our beloved”. Being a leader in the military is a sacred responsibility. General Puller was a unique leader. While we expect all of our military leaders to be able to make the tough calls, we should not expect that they will all deal with the results of those tough calls in the same manner. Give me a leader who cries over his dead Soldiers over someone looking for his next promotion. A leader who suffers over the loss of his Soldiers will cut them no slack in their training. He will value their lives and not sell them cheaply. He/she will do everything to look out for our “beloved” who we entrust to them. They should pay this.
Did you read the whole story? He lost a lot of men under his command and he took every death personally. He was in EOD, an extremely dangerous field. My husband worked with him before he (my husband) retired in 2005.) The deploy all the time, get almost no down time because it is such a small specialized field. They are constantly out and about, looking for IED’s trying to make it possible for other Marines to do their jobs so they don’t end up dead.