Page 156 - Stand Down Vietnam

The Veterans Administration did not officially
acknowledge PTSD until 1978, four years after the
acknowledged end of the Vietnam War.

I consider PTSD “Wounds That Do Not Bleed”.

We read or hear the reports that twenty-two Veterans
commit suicide every day; I don't know where that

number really comes from, another study I suppose. Use
critical thinking, who’s study and for what purpose?

In my twenty-two-year career, I knew of about twenty
suicides in my units. I don't know what groups the
study includes. Is it active-duty, retirees, and
people who served then got out? The study needs
critical analysis.
VA RESEARCH ON
SUICIDE PREVENTION

Early on, probably 1968, I started hearing the military
was using body counts to measure effectiveness. That
never did sit well with any of us. How could they know
this stuff? How do we know how many of our enemies
were wounded or killed if we didn't go out there and
literally count them? I was always skeptical. There
was not a single soldier, that I knew, who believed in
the “counts” as we called them.

As for there being a stigma associated with service
during the Vietnam-Era; I think the hardest thing was
to have not served “In-Country”. The ridicule from
within the ranks was more profound. To have lost a
friend or had a friend injured and knowing you didn’t
go to Vietnam was what we called the “silent stigma”.
We quickly learned to “stuff it”.