TonyDtorch said:
...I was wondering why you never heard of PTSD from the guys that landed on Omaha beach ?
I think the term used for soldiers, sailors, and marines in WWII and before was "shell shocked", but that was something different that the PTSD of today. In every war people see horrible things, the difference, as I see it, has to do with the political part of the war. In WWII virtually everyone agreed that the war was necessary, so what ever you saw,or what ever happened you were more likely to just accept it as a part of war, however, in subsequent wars, the political part of the war has not been so clear, especially in Viet-Nam and Iraq, so then, people ask themselves; I had to do this, or I had to see that, for what? Part of the PTSD of today is the internal mental dissonance of being sent to a war that you later figure out was not what you originally thought it was.
I believe another part of the PTSD of today is the fact that members in the military have such easy access to technology of today, so that they can Skype, email, or otherwise have pretty easy communication with loved ones at home on a pretty regular basis. I can only imagine what it must be like to have been on a mission death and destruction, and then be able to Skype with loved ones a couple hours later, and then know you are going out on equally dangerous missions in the near future. Again, there is the internal mental dissonance of being a soldier, sailor, or marine in a war one minute, then a couple of hours later being a dad, mom, brother or sister while communicating with family.
Just my observations.
Paul
