PTSD Psychotic Soldier Kills Afghan Civilians: SEQUEL

PTSD is mental illness. Mental illness may be psychosis.

Dr. Phil Leveque suffers from PTSD and has treated thousands, so he knows what that can mean. Photo by Bonnie King

(MOLALLA, Ore.) - The unfortunate act of Sgt Bales in Afghanistan is horrible in the extreme but it was not only expected but preventable. Infantry Sgt Bales is/was a gung ho soldier by any measure. I was an infantry Private under the likes of Sgt Bales and know a real soldier when I see or hear about one.

He did three tours in Iraq performing excellently and getting head wounds and part of his foot shot off. After all that, getting sent back into a hot combat zone was totally irresponsible. He paid his dues far more than most infantrymen are ever required. He earned PTSD the hard way, up in front.

One of his most egregious detractors is a former army psychiatrist Dr. Paul Newhouse, presently at Vanderbilt Medical School. Dr. Newhouse drivels the Army garbage that, "it’s more likely we’re going to discover that this was some either psychotic illness or delusional condition or some evidence that this person was more seriously deranged or impaired than we would typically see in PTSD."

If this were so, it would be obvious to the lowest ranking medic and he shouldn’t even be in the Army. They had eleven years of observation and even made him a Staff Sergeant in charge of twelve or more men.

He came from Fort Lewis Washington, which has a record of high PTSD cases, suicides, spousal abuse, murders and other typical signs of PTSD. Besides that, he did not want to go back into combat but as a good soldier, he went. Like all infantrymen, he was trained to be a killer.

An infantry motto could be A-S-S, Attack, Succeed, Survive. That’s what we were trained for. Anybody who has not been in close combat has no understanding of that mental stress and four tours of duty in a combat zone, which is absurd. There are others who can go and endure that.

For Dr. Newhouse to trivialize his military experience as mild TBI and mild PTSD is like stating mild pregnancy, or mild gallstones. To be judged “fit for duty” by an Army doctor can be a sentence of death.

Sgt Bales was supposed to be drunk at this attack, which Senior Sgt or Lieutenant allowed this to occur? I hear heads falling to the ground.

He was probably given antidepressant drugs which turned him into a zombie and he quit taking them. Side effects of some antidepressants include suicidal tendencies. Would that include suicidal mission? He shouldn’t have been where he was. This was a failure of command.

Other current information is that 25% of Middle East soldiers are being sent home for mental reasons. I read this as PTSD. This story has produced intense response. The New York Times has about 7000 letters to the Editor on this subject; Al Jazeera reports 252 at last count. Most of the writers had no concept of the “kill or be killed” philosophy of the infantry. Sgt Bales is a sick man and must be viewed as that.

Being “a good soldier” conceals the illness that is PTSD, but he had enough with recent casualties in his unit such as two killed and one soldier with his leg blown off and he cracked, which we sometimes say. If he killed 16 in combat action, he would be given a silver star.

IF YOU HAVEN’T WALKED IN HIS FIELD BOOTS DO NOT JUDGE.

See also: PTSD Psychotic Soldier Kills Afghan Civilians (1)

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