PTSD-afflicted Army Sergeant arrested at Press Conference

Update III: Army Desertion Rate Highest Since 1980

Update II: Local news, Watertown, NY- Just as his press conference about his mental illness was coming to an end Sergeant Brad Gaskins was arrested. When Gaskins asked what he did wrong an officer responded "you're a deserter". Watch the video five grafs into the story in by hitting "Play" in the PTSD a growing problem in the military box.

Update: NPR - Army Dismissals for Mental Health, Misconduct Rise
by Daniel Zwerdling

The U.S. government arrested another whistleblower: An Army Sergeant looking for help for his Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Via Daily Kos, the following is written by an Army veteran, Mike Bailey, whose blog, Military & Veterans: Politics for the Deserving, runs in the politics section of his local paper, The State newspaper in South Carolina.
by Mike Bailey
Fri Nov 16, 2007 at 03:18:57 AM PST

This is the story of how the federal government is choosing to handle the case of one soldier with PTSD that they were failing to treat, he sought medical assistance from a local civlian hospital, where he was given he felt effective treatment. He asked for more time to be treated by the hospital, his chain of command denied it, saying it would delay his processing by the Army.

That is when SGT Gaskins made the improper choice of leaving without permission, the military calls the first 30 days Abesent without Leave or AWOL after 30 days the term is changed to desertion, and during the time of war, desertion can be published severely, up to and including the death penalty, I will grant the position that no one has been given the ultimate sentence since WW2.

Since then mostly soldiers age given a few years at the most in a military prison. Some are even just given bad conduct discharges and let out of the military with no veterans benefits and no compensation for war time medical problems, including PTSD. They are just sent home with a "black mark" on their record that will prevent them from obtaining a decent job from the government (a secure future) many civilian companies will even reject the idea of hiring veterans with BCD discharges. Few companies are willing to take a risk on someone with a history of bad conduct.

The real question comes down to what are we as a nation going to do for the men and women who have PTSD and that our military system is failing to treat and assist these combat veterans get their lives straight or into an effective treatment programs.

I can NOT defend SGT Gaskins choice to desert, but on the other hand I am appalled at the Army's unwillingness to help their own. Here is a man who has been deployed three times to areas of conflict or outright war in his eight year career, they owe him help, not prosecution. The effects of PTSD lead you to make bad decisions, lack of sleep, paranoia, reliving the events over and over in your head, exaggerated startle response, overly alert, up all hours of the night checking doors and locks, windows because you don't feel safe, etc. There are many more symptoms of PTSD, many soldiers turn to alcohol, drugs legal and illegal to help them cope, which in turn leads to more problems in and out of the Army.

This AP article explains SGT Gaskins problems
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) — A soldier who served two combat tours in Iraq was arrested Wednesday for leaving the Army without permission more than a year ago to seek treatment for post traumatic stress disorder.

At a news conference hours before his arrest, Sgt. Brad Gaskins said he left the base in August 2006 because the Army wasn't providing effective treatment after he was diagnosed with PTSD and severe depression.

"They just don't have the resources to handle it, but that's not my fault," Gaskins said.

Tod Ensign, an attorney with Citizen Soldier, a GI rights group that is representing Gaskins, said the case is part of a "coming tsunami" of mental health problems involving Iraq and Afghanistan vets.
Last month, the Veterans Administration said more than 100,000 soldiers were being treated for mental health problems, and half of those specifically for PTSD.

Gaskins, 25, of East Orange, N.J., was taken into custody at a Watertown cafe by civilian police officers from Fort Drum and two local police officers, Ensign said. The lawyer said he had been on the phone with military prosecutors working out the details of Gaskins' surrender when the soldier was arrested.

The article also explains that SGT Gaskins wife has legally seperated from him and he is allowed only supervised visits with his children. This happens to many PTSD veterans.

Myself, my children will not allow me to see my grandchildren because of my PTSD and their desires not to expose their kids to my irrational behavior at times, I can't blame them, I left definate impressions on their childhood. PTSD does not only affect the veteran/soldier the entire community around them is impacted by it, spouses, kids, friends, co-workers, neighbors, police and the court system usually all end up involved in a PTSD veterans lives, in a less than helpful way.I have no one to blame for not seeing my grandchildren other than myself, we are working on reestablishing the family relationship with the aid of the VA doctors and my fifth wife's involvement.

I know most of you remember the "marlboro man" Blake Miller made famous by the photoo coming out of Falluja in 2004, the photographer that took that picture has a 2 day story about his experience with Blake since Blake was discharged from the Marine Corp because of PTSD.
In this LA Times article by Luis Sinco the photographer that took the now famous "marlboro man" pic. Their lives are now intertwined and Luis feels he owes Blake for giving him unwanted attention. Needless to say, Blake was already going to have issues with PTSD, with or without this picture becoming front page news.

Blake has been given many opportunities many of us would give body parts for, scholarships to Yale, expensive rehab programs for free, etc, he has chosen to withdraw from them all and head back to the mountains of West Virginia.

This is the letter I sent to Luis yesterday:

Luis, you are NOT responsible for what happens to Blake Miller, he is. You were just doing what you do, document the facts with pics, Blake was fighting in a war zone, you two interfaced and for some reason his pic became known as the "Marlboro man" a Marine Hero, hero is a word they throw around to easy now a days. He was just like any other marine who lived to come home.

Like many other Marines and soldiers he developed PTSD, there are currently 3 million disabled veterans in America, approx 1/3 of them have PTSD to some degree, there are only 250,000 veterans rated at the 100% level or 70% TDIU which is paid at the 100% level, most PTSD vets are rated 70% and then are considered unemployable so they pay them at the 100% rate. I don't know which category Blake falls into.

Myself I am rated 100% scheduler for PTSD P&T which means the VA considers me permanently disabled by just my PTSD regardless of my many other health issues related to service which they want to ignore, because it involves a classified project during the Cold War and they don't want to deal with it. It has been in the public realm since the Church Committee in 1973 the CIA's MKULTRA LSD experiments, black eye time.

Luis, your responsibility it to yourself, your wife and your family, don't let Blake drag you down. I have a younger brother in prison in California at Pleasant Valley for meth problems, he's a repeat offender, I have no more chance of helping him than you do Blake. He was given a very sweet chance to get into Yale.

But soon Miller began talking about going home.

Once again, I made the cross-country trip. I wanted to grab him by the shoulders and tell him not to blow an excellent opportunity to put his life back together. A chance to go to Yale? I would jump at that myself.
But Miller wasn't receptive. He had scuffled with some local motorcycle toughs and felt threatened. He missed the mountains. He wanted to go home. Period.

There are very few people given a chance like that, and HE blew it, not you, not Jessica, Blake did, he can keep drowning his problems in booze and maybe illegal drugs for the next few decades, he may even end up in prison like many of the PTSD vets, because of the problems they let themselves get into.

There is a ex Captain in prison in California due to drug addiction caused by pain and PTSD, he used an unloaded gun to rob pharmacies to get his pills, he did it, not the PTSD, PTSD is a mental health issue, it is not an excuse for every thing a veteran does.

I feel for Blake, I walked in his shoes, but I never threw things away as bad as he did, maybe I did I walked away from the Post Office after 17 years without a pension or any other benefits, 7 heart attacks and a stroke just left me wanting out, and I walked in May 2000.

It took me until DEC 2002 to ask my VA doctor for a referral to mental health due to my problems 27 years after the incident that caused my PTSD I became I thought good at coping thru life, my 4 divorces and many jobs, 2 wars, and the denial of being able to see my 5 grand children because of my PTSD. I didn't do it as well as I thought, medications help, counseling helps, does it make the PTSD go away, NO, I stay at home, I don't drink, I spend my time advocating for other veterans from my power chair and my computer mostly on Daily Kos as testvet 6778.

Luis, your debt to Blake has been paid, you and your family come first.
Mike Bailey Columbia SC I grew up in Riverside Norte Vista High School.

Our nation does owe these combat veterans that developed PTSD from repeated deployments over and over to Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo etc. What are they supposed to do, when their lives have been irrevocably damaged by their service, will some of these PTSD vets get better over time, maybe and some may get worse, the thing with PTSD is, there are the worst days, and better days seldom are there any "good days" lives have been changed, you can't go back in time before the damage occurred, can you learn to live with it, yes many have, for some of us, it is withdrawal into our own homes and the safety of our sanctuary, others find comfort in being in the woods, camping, fishing and hunting, like everyone else, PTSD veterans find different outlets for their anger and issues.

The men and women with severe and chronic PTSD will at some point become unemployable for jobs with the phone company, the Postal Service, Police Officers etc, they will go thru many low paying jobs, being fired for anger management issuse, drunk at work, missing to many days etc.

Is it the right thing to just throw them out of the military with bad discharges either BCDs or the now Infamous PDO's Personality Disorders that the government has been doing, the approximately 22,000 men like Specialist Town shown in this article from the Nation? No, we as a nation owe them better than this, that is just my two cents.
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