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AWOL soldier seeking treatment arrested »
Posted by: Aidenag 1 year, 12 months agoA 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. 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.
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Aidenag
Photographer by day, news junkie by night. My main areas of interest are politics and the environment.
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Comments: 245
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cowboygrandpa
Nov. 15, 2007, 5:19 a.m.This is bad. We need to treat our returning soldiers for their disorders physical or mental. If we don't we will have problems like we did after Nam. You will have vets going off on people unexpectedly. Listen for crying out loud. Our government put them there. They should at least treat them when they come home. We have to speak out for these walking wounded or who will?
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jaern
Nov. 15, 2007, 7:11 a.m.Poor guy. I hope he gets the help he needs and I don't think the military idea of treatment should be hair-of-the-dog.
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palamaComment has been removed: Retracted by user
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engineer
Nov. 15, 2007, 8:30 a.m.The administration will go to hell. They'll spend a lot more time there. Prolife - BS
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Ciera-Marie
Nov. 15, 2007, 8:42 a.m.This is a sad day in our country when a soldier has to go AWOL to get help.
Thanks Aidenag for finding this, and submitting it. This is a must read for anyone who supports the war, this administration and says they support the troops.
Thanks CowboyGrandpa for informing me about this article. If this administration really supported the troops you wouldn't have things like this happening.
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Patriot1
Nov. 15, 2007, 8:55 a.m.O.K people, what part of A.W.O.L. do you not understand?
I accept the fact that this individual is having some problems, but you can't tell me this person took a whole year to get help! It sounds to me like he went AWOL, then started asking for help after he got caught!!! Shame on him for giving the vets that do things the right way a bad name.PTSD is a real and very serious problem, and we MUST supprot our military people, by making sure they get the help they need!!!
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RedstateLib
Nov. 15, 2007, 9:04 a.m.It may not excuse it but it is mitigating circumstance. Kinda like a guy breaking into a house to call 911 and report a life threating accident. A window is broken and a life is saved and the world still turns.
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pongping
Nov. 15, 2007, 9:41 a.m.I guess you can call this anecdotal. I know a guy who has been been treating returning vets some of whom have served multiple tours in the Middle East. According to him, there is more than a small percentage of them who really have problems and are unfit for duty in a combat zone. Despite this, they are being ordered back because it's a numbers game, not enough bodies.
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AnteUp
Nov. 15, 2007, 11:11 a.m.Tessylo ~
It's good you wouldn't be surprised.
Three shots to the forehead at close range and the
military medical examiner requested an investigation
for suspected homicide - but was denied. They burned
Tillman's clothes and his DIARY.......maybe one of
these days we'll hear the truth.
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crghss
Nov. 15, 2007, 2:10 p.m."What if he voiced dissent and Blackwater thugs killed him?"
It just gets better and better out here in nutscape. Just make the crap up as you type along.
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AnteUp
Nov. 15, 2007, 11:03 a.m.Got it. October 15th, The Nation article entitled,
"Specialist Town Takes His Case To Washington"
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20071015/kors
No need for me to say more - you wouldn't believe it
anyway. You must read it to understand just a tiny
bit of what our soldiers are suffering.
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rightfromwrong
Nov. 15, 2007, 11:11 a.m.The USA is a pathetic nation and how they treat our soldiers is an embarrassment in front of the world. Such a phony war which makes even more ridiculous. GREED and the Jewish lobby controls the USA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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jovial
Nov. 15, 2007, 11:30 a.m.Excellent story, Cowboy. This is way under reported. When I served in the Navy. There was one drug given for almost everything that ailed you, from back pain to fever and the common cold, Motrin. There was medical treatment in some cases, but you had to know that if your superiors felt you would be off duty for too long, you could be accused of malingering. A UCMJ offense that could bring fines, restriction, and loss of promotion. So you can get sick, but you damn well better be able to prove that you really are sick. PTSD must be very hard to prove. Thanks, Aidenag.
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AnteUp
Nov. 15, 2007, 11:29 a.m.Anyone ~
I caught an interview regarding veterans on CSPAN last
Thursday - Nov. 8th with Rep.John Carter (R) Texas
He is a member of the Veterans Affairs Appropriations
Sub-committee. Video is available at CSPAN's page for
Washington Jornal for that date - crank the video forward
to one minute 24 seconds (1:24:20) when the host
announces a call from St.Petersburg, FLA - on their
Independent line.
This caller - a woman - says she was a Reservist who
had been mobilized for 4-1/2 years. She states that she
is a Lt. Colonel and has two masters.
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AnteUp
Nov. 15, 2007, 11:37 a.m.Cont.
June 2006 she was released from active duty and she was
HOMELESS. There had been an administrative error and she
had been overpaid - so they garnished her wages 100%
Regular active duty can only have 25% garnished but
the same rules DO NOT apply to single Reservists.
She referenced Title 37? And BAH entitlements?
Noting that she left for the Middle East - quitting
her job - putting her belongings into storage and
then worked for 3 months with NO PAY upon her return
because of the garnishment. Also no BAH entitlement for single Reservists if you didn't have a home address.
It was riveting - better to hear it yourself than my
faulty recitation - BTW, what's BAH?
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willottica
Nov. 15, 2007, 12:34 p.m.I think one of the biggest contributors to PTSD has got to be justification. You didn't hear so much about PTSD resulting from WWI and WWII, and I think that that's largely because the horrors they witnessed and the horrors they went through had a direct resolution. They fought back a tangible enemy, had a tangible victory, and know they fought for the greater good.
With VietNam and Iraq, you have an enemy that is hard to identify and victory conditions that are undefined. When you get home after the war and have all these memories of horrors, where do you turn for consolation? Was it worth it? Did you actually stop any terrorist attacks? Would communism have spread without your intervention?
You might be able to rationalize the death of your fellow soldiers and the lives you had to take, if you KNOW that you did it because it was necessary.
The 'liberals/democrats' did not invent the questions that will be playing endlessly in veterans' minds, they just voiced them.
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hyperbola
Nov. 15, 2007, 12:42 p.m.120 US war veteran suicides a week
News รข;; The US military is experiencing a "suicide epidemic" with veterans killing themselves at the rate of 120 a week.
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DarkWizard
Nov. 15, 2007, 1:12 p.m.Thank you for posting this and inviting me cowboygrandpa.
This is pretty screwed up. We have soldiers that have served multiple tours, been exposed to atrocities, and now have been diagnosed with PTSD or severe depression (somewhere in the 100,000 troops range now). Statistics show that 6,000 have committed suicide and projections are for another 5,000 to do so this coming year.
We have 170,000 mercenaries that have a small percentage who seem to have no problem with killing or committing atrocities and there are no reported mental illnesses (other than their pre-existing conditions) or suicides.
I was brought up military and always believed that there was no excuse for going AWOL. But, I grew up and found out that life isn't black and white. And, since this administration has taken over...boy is it not black and white! The only thing black and white is the crimes this administration has committed. Not taking care of our troops, when they need it most, is the worst crime of all!
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joeblowe
Nov. 15, 2007, 1:46 p.m.I'm with DarkWizard on this. It's really shameful. And the true hell of it is, Congress could doubtless pass a bill allocating ANY amount of money they decided to pick out of a hat for the care and treatment of injured military, and they would never hear a word against it from their constituents. It pretty much amounts to criminal negligence, and our elected representatives are the ones that should be held to account. Funding for our government comes from the House of Representatives. Perhaps they should issue a separate funding bill for this so that the grubbers in the Pentagon don't grab the money that was originally in the budget for this to buy some more bombs or something.
My judgment on this PARTICULAR guy: If he was REALLY suffering from PTSD, and there doesn't seem to be any indication he wasn't, he should NOT have been in the active military anyway - he'd be a danger to himself and others around him. Medical discharge, please.
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PilotSmall
Nov. 15, 2007, 2:05 p.m.This is not new folks! I am dying of a lung condition from being in a buring aircraft in VN;breathing burning wire, insullation, hydrolic fuild, etc., which I have to pay for myself because it was a classified mission and there is no recorded proof available to the VA! The military is just as slippery today as it was in VN.
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