The following is a guest blog post by Rachel Telford, Archivist for the Library of Congress Veterans History Project (VHP). A version of this article was previously published on the Library of Congress Blog, March 6, 2017.
Exploring the experiences of veterans and the impact of military service inevitably means discussing PTSD. “PTSD: A Lasting Impact of War,” the most recent installment of the Veterans History Project‘s Experiencing War web feature, explores the stories of soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines in a variety of career fields who have returned from war bearing the invisible scars of their experiences. The collections in this exhibit were chosen with an eye toward exploring the variety of experiences of servicemen and women who have suffered from PTSD, as well as the striking similarities. Each veteran describes symptoms such as nightmares, anxiety, anger and difficulty maintaining personal and professional relationships, and all but the youngest among them describe living with these symptoms for decades. Though understanding of PTSD grew after World War II, it did not begin to expand significantly until the 1980s, and many veterans of Vietnam, Korea and World War II have been diagnosed only recently.
Navy photographer Raymond Eldred Metcalf spent the Korean War traveling between combat units to collect images of Navy planes in action, surviving bombings and sniper fire, all while armed with nothing but his camera. In his VHP interview he said:
…if you’re going to light a bomb, a time bomb for war or combat, then you better be able to find a way to defuse that bomb when you get it out of that, and they never have. When I got out, there wasn’t even anybody to talk to… because nobody understood, and it seemed like nobody cared except me.
When he returned from war, Metcalf experienced nightmares and suffered from depression, but had nowhere to turn for help. More than 15 years later, Arthur T. Baltazar returned from Vietnam, where he served with the Army as a perimeter guard. He experienced the same types of nightmares and despondency, thinking at the time, “Nobody cares. I can’t believe that nobody cares what we went through. Not just me, but all the vets.”
Among veterans of Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) estimates that 11-20% experience PTSD in a given year. Larry Rosenthal, a New Jersey National Guardsman who was activated in the immediate aftermath of the September 11 Terrorist Attacks and went on to serve in Afghanistan, experienced sleeplessness, heightened awareness and difficulty controlling his emotions upon his return from the war. Unlike his predecessors, he didn’t have to wait years to find the help he needed. During his VHP interview he shared:
One Sunday I blew up, and left here in a fit of what they call ‘blind rage.’ And I said, ‘Time for counseling.’ And the VA was there.
The veterans featured in this exhibit share difficult stories that illuminate one of the most lasting impacts of war. But that impact is more than simply an individual struggle. Army veteran David Polhemus became a counselor to soldiers who, like himself, live with PTSD; former medic Wendy Taines was inspired to go back to school to learn more about PTSD, so that she could become an advocate for veterans; and Barner spends his free time helping fellow veterans navigate the VA healthcare system. To hear their stories and view all of the collections featured in the exhibit, visit http://www.loc.gov/vets/stories/ex-war-ptsd.html.
Comments (5)
I would love to see this project extended farther into the past. I’m sure there are stories of veterans struggling with what we would now call PTSD in the historical record, particularly in VA records and newspaper archives.
My great-great-grandfather William C. Morse is an example. He fought in the Union Army, was wounded at Chickamauga, was captured, and spent 14 months in Andersonville Prison. He went home to Illinois, married and started a family. But he just couldn’t settle. They went west from Illinois to Kansas, then on to Texas, then back to Kansas, then to Idaho, then Oregon, and back to Idaho, all by covered wagon, setting up a homestead each time, before my gg-grandmother refused to move again.
He kept moving. In my genealogical research I found records of him all over the west, but the saddest thing was an article I found in Chronicling America. It was in the Ogden Evening Standard, July 18, 1911, titled “He Wearied of a Sad Life.”
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85058397/1911-07-18/ed-1/seq-7/
He had attempted suicide in the lavatory of a train between Ogden and SLC. He was interviewed in the hospital, and the (rather florid) story they published is a textbook example of PTSD.
“He returned to his home from the war and although he loved his wife and family while in his right mind there were times when he felt the frenzy of a maniac creeping over him, times when he battled with himself to stop his hands from murder.”
In family stories we always attributed his wanderlust to his imprisonment, saying “He didn’t like to have four walls around him.” But this article opened my eyes to the depth of his pain and struggle with PTSD. There must be more of him in the record.
Sorry. I meant to say more “like” him in the record, not “of” him.
Thank you so much reading and for sharing about your brave great-great grandfather. We recognize that PTSD affected service members long before the disorder was given its name. VHP’s Congressional mandate requires that we collect stories of those who served from World War I through the more recent conflicts, so we are unable archive Civil War collections. However, other divisions at the Library of Congress have older resources. Visit http://www.loc.gov/rr/ for more information.
I was an electronics specialist with the Nike Hercules deployed in south Florida in response to the Cuban Missile Crisis. To this day I have bad periods when I think about the thousands of people who would have been incinerated had we launched. Just doing simple wiring around the house or on my car brings back bad memories of the work I did and the profound belief that I might have had a part to play in the end of the world. Never bothered me then but now that I am an old man I find it hard to live with myself.
I am moved by every veteran’s sad story of their internal struggle with depression and PTSD as a consequence of war. It’s natural for people to be disturbed after witnessing extreme human suffering from war. Our society tends to withdraw from the subject of PTSD in veterans making it more difficult for individuals to process their complex emotions. The isolation of the soldier compounds the pain from the trauma predisposing them to the risk of suicidal or homicidal urges. The rates of veteran suicide are three times that of non-vets, a reflection of an urgent situation that needs to be addressed by our government, particularly in this situation of genocide in Gaza. War conflict and casualty is a frequent trigger for PTSD. Just last week, an active duty serviceman self-immolated in front of the Israeli embassy, a desperate act that calls attention to the issue.