From March 14th to 16th 2008, Pacifica Radio provided coverage of the historic Winter Soldier 2008 gathering in Washington, DC.
National broadcast (April 22nd) on the first class action lawsuit brought by Iraq war veterans against the Department of Veterans Affairs. US vets suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder are alleging a system-wide breakdown in the way the government treats injured soldiers.
When young American men and women sign up to serve in the US military, our government makes a basic promise to them: that if they are wounded in the line of duty they will get the care they need. Unfortunately, for tens of thousands of veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, that's a promise that only exists on paper.
Corporal Phillipe Louis Jean: When I Got Back from Iraq, They Tried to Deport Me
Specialist Joshua Casteel: Abu Ghraib Interrogator Meets With the Pope
Lance Corporal Jeff Key: Gay Marine Comes Out on CNN
Sergeant Todd Bowers: While I Was in Iraq, My Student Loans Were Sent to Collection
Sergeant James Dean: Afghan Vet Shot by Maryland State Troopers
Reaction
I listened to ROE 2 yesterday in my car as I was driving through L.A. It was perhaps the most powerful material I've ever heard on the air. I thank god that KPFK exsists!!
I cannot put into words the impact the material, the testimonies and the message had/have on me...it woke me up this morning. I was moved beyond my emotional limits and each and every soldier who spoke delivered their message in a manner that made my heart bleed.
John Michael Turner especially moved me and I remember saying to myself aloud in my car, "Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!". During his testimony I pulled my car over on La Cienega and my hands immediately assumed the praying position.
People, I don't care if you're Republican, Democrat, Green, Liberal, American, Black, White, Pink or Purple...The subject here is HUMANITY. It's about our human-ness and asking ourselves first, what does this mean to us, and 2nd, what are we going to do about it?!
Please take this opportunity to be available throughout the weekend for this programming and invite any and all human beings you know to listen.
God Bless Humanity and bless the men who have embraced their conscience enough to come forth with their stories...let's pray!
It's about time... hopes for healing... and halting this war
I have been so touched this morning hearing the frank stories and palpable emotions of these brave and so very human vets. My heart goes out to them with compassion and the fervent desire that they get the healing they need and absolutely deserve.
My beloved dad was an Air Force vet of the Korean and Vietnam wars. Two years before he recently died he told me that his volunteering for the Air Force likely saved his life. He knew his draft number was coming up. Had he not joined this particular branch of service, he would have been "tramping the ditches in Korea and not sitting here with you right now." Indeed, his family got his [army] draft notice while he was in basic training with the Air Force. The casualty rate for army personnel in Korea was horrendous.
The dilemma that he and other young men faced then, during Vietnam, during other wars, and potentially in the future is criminal. No one should have to make such terrible "choices".
When my dad returned from his third Vietnam TDY - supporting the bombing campaign as an aircraft mechanic and crew chief - he was a different man. I experienced his hair-trigger rage in physically punishing ways. As a teenager, all I knew at that time was that I did not know this man who had always been my best loved parent. He and I had been close. I felt betrayed, hurt, confused, and very lost.
It was only much later - recently in fact - that I finally understood that he had been suffering from PSTD. He had no tolerance for, much less the capacity to sort out family dynamics and take reasoned actions. He had no fuse left. His actions were immediate rage responses. It was also clear at that age that he was trying to reassert control in his family. Unfortunately, his suffering cost our family great pain and further suffering. It also created negative patterns that my sister and I each have carried as we grew into women.
I do not know what atrocities he may have personally witnessed - as ground support - or what stories he may have heard from the bomber pilots or from soldiers in the field. Whatever his experience, it deeply affected him. I don't recall his going for any kind of treatment back then. It was soon afterwards that his 20 years was up and with my mom's insistence, he retired from the military.
Now 16 months after his death, I still wonder what really happened to him - deep in his soul - during those TDYs.
Thank you for covering this event!!!
Reply:... It's about time
While your father probably did not experience any combat or atrocities first hand, your story exemplifies how war, especially a war of illegal occupation, degrades the humanity, in some way, of every one involved. I dare to say, that even being far from the scene of the crime, this war will in some way effect both of us.
My ex-wife's husband before me served several tours in Vietnam as a cook. Never got near combat or any casualties. However, he vehemently hated Vietnames, even the ones that had come to the US and were probably one "our" side.
While taking courses for a Master's in counseling, I had a chance to do a paper on vicarious traumatization. This is a problem affecting people who listen to stories of people who have been traumatized. It was first noticed in children of holocaust survivors, who were actually born after the war, but were traumatized by the stories there parents told them of the ordeal. It is possible your father suffered from this.
Also, the very atmosphere created by doing so much destruction can be internalized by those who actually do not pull the trigger.
Whatever the case, it helps to talk to someone about it. Therapists are taught that while we do not know of talk therapy hurting anyone, if it is used properly, we do know that things that are not talked about can hurt a person.
So now what?!?
For all the amazing organizing going on with IVAW, I think the feedback portion has been inadequate.
Every Veteran belongs to a family. It may be hard to accept a 'between the wars vet' if you have shrapnel wounds or a TBI, but it is still a fact that the thing that the military has in common is us.
So, with soo many calls for impeachment and restitution and so many of our ranks waking up to the fact that this entire world is depending on US to stop this horror... What are we going to do?
CAN WE GET TOGETHER AND "ACT-ADAPT-OVERCOME" ?!
The outcome, the means and the consequences can be worked out later. FIRST: Do no harm.
What the QUAGMIRE needs is exposure.. sunlight. We immediately withdraw AND stop funding 'destabilizing elements'. We do nothing. We watch the people ask who they want for the help they want and we deliver what we already owe: RESPECT
and all the actions that come along with it... . . . .
IVAW WARCOMESHOME TRUTHOUT give us a place to join.
Give us a movement to wage peace with. CODE PINK
W E A R E G A L V A N I Z E D P O W E R
R U READY FOR LOVE?