8 October, 2008
[Editor’s note: To get a better understanding of the players in this story, I contacted one of the principals, Ms. Linda Mosier. As identified by Joshua Kors of The Nation, Ms. Mosier is the mother of former member of the U.S. Army, Chris Mosier. Chris committed suicide shortly after returning from Iraq.
Because I am stunned by what appears as naïvete on the part of many Americans, and especially the families of American veterans, I called Ms. Mosier to learn if she was as ignorant as Mr. Kors portrays. Sadly, both she and her son, were at best ugly American jingoists, and at worse, willing slaves for empire, champions of White supremacy.
Ms. Mosier, asserted that her son was gung-ho to go to Iraq, though she had no idea if he believed that Iraq was involved in 9/11. Putting aside that fact that she had and has no idea about the illegality of the invasion and occupation, Ms. Mosier said that she knew war was bad, but did not expect her son to come back so messed up. What did Seymour Hersh report in the aftermath of the My Lai massacre? One mother told Hersh, “I gave them a good boy, and they sent me back a murderer.” Ms. Mosier never knew about that either.
Though a child of the Vietnam era, Ms. Mosier, a nurse, knew nothing about the levels of mental illness found in Vietnam vets, where over 60,000 have committed suicide and thousands were and are among the homeless. Never considering the record of the Bush administration and its ill treatment of vets – Walter Reed is the tip of the iceberg, Ms. Mosier, readily admitted that Bush would never send his children to go to Iraq, but naively thought that a government which has steadily kicked out vets suffering from Gulf War Illness and PTSD, and cuts funds for rehab, would “take care” of her child with “at least some therapy.”
Though Ms. Mosier does not think about it, her son was part of a machine that created the nightmare that is the chaos of Iraq. Instead of feeling some sense of solidarity with the families in Iraq and Afghanistan, she wallows in a pool of insight and reflection, about two inches deep. She gave them a jingoist, they returned a man who could not live with his guilt. When will Ms. Mosier stop to think that she might have to pay penance for her ignorance and trust in the American Empire?]
The Truth, the First Casualty of War
Over the past six years, some 22,500 American soldiers have been discharged from the military on grounds of “personality disorder.” Because the Pentagon can allege that the condition existed prior to their tour of duty, the Department of Defense absolves itself of standard obligations to provide their medical care and pay their benefits.
A six-month investigation by reporter Joshua Kors for The Nation magazine (9 April 2007) learned of “multiple cases” in which “soldiers wounded in Iraq are suspiciously diagnosed as having a personality disorder, then prevented from collecting benefits.”
According to Kors, “The conditions of their discharge have infuriated many in the military community, including the injured soldiers and their families, veterans’ rights groups, even military officials required to process these dismissals.” These critics say that the military is purposely misdiagnosing soldiers “to cheat them out of a lifetime of disability and medical benefits, thereby saving billions in expenses.”
Kors calculates that with an average disability payment of about $8,900 a year and a medical cost of about $5,000 per year over a 40-year period per soldier, separating 22,500 of them would save the Pentagon $8-billion in disability pay and $4.5-billion in medical care over their lifetimes. Army Specialist Jon Town, of Findlay, Ohio, was separated on a “personality disorder” diagnosis. The finding is suspect for in October, 2004, a 107-millimeter rocket struck two feet over Town’s head, as he stood in the doorway of his battalion’s headquarters in Ramadi, Iraq. The force of the explosion was so great that Town’s ears were leaking blood and rocket shrapnel was removed from his neck. The blast caused substantial deafness, and he suffers from memory failure and depression as well. Inexplicably (yet expectedly), military doctors at Fort Carson, Colorado, diagnosed Town with “personality disorder” which thus deprives him of disability and medical benefits.
Army of Crazies?
Russell Terry, founder of the Iraq War Veterans Organization pointed out that each soldier is screened psychologically when they join the military. Terry asks rhetorically, “if all these soldiers really did have a severe pre-existing condition, how did they get into the military in the first place?” According to Kors, in the last six years the Army, alone, has diagnosed and discharged more than 5,600 soldiers on the grounds of a personality disorder, and these numbers continue to rise. Between January and November of 2006, 1,086 soldiers were discharged with the label of personality disorder. One military official, who Kors did not identify said, “It’s like, suddenly everybody [on my base] has a personality disorder. They’re saving a buck. And they’re saving the VA money too. It’s all about money.”
In the case of veteran Specialist Town, he was told to give back the bulk of his $15,000 enlistment bonus and left Ft. Carson owing the government more than $3,000. According to Kors, Fort Carson psychologist Mark Wexler assured Town that the injured vet would receive disability benefits, VA medical care, and would get to keep his bonus. When Town learned that he was being discharged empty-handed, Town said, “It was a total shock. I felt like I’d been betrayed by the Army.” When asked if doctors at Fort Carson were assuring patients set for, what is defined as, a “5-13 pre-existing condition discharge” that they would receive benefits, Colonel Steven Knorr, Wexler’s boss, replied, “I don’t believe they’re doing that.”
Other veterans contacted by Kors, however, said military doctors tried to force the diagnosis upon them and turned a blind eye to physical ailments and post traumatic stress disorder symptoms. Army Specialist William Wooldridge who said that he accidentally struck and killed a young girl who was pushed in front of his ammunition truck in Iraq, has heard voices and suffered hallucinations ever since. He was discharged with “personality disorder” but 18 months later, a review board in Memphis, Tennessee, voided that 5-13 dismissal, stating his PTSD was so severe he was, in fact, “totally disabled.”
Suicide is Painless, Ignorance Hurts
Another veteran, Chris Mosier, of Des Moines, Iowa, put a note on the front door of his home saying the Iraqis were after him and then shot himself. His mother, Linda, said her son’s problems began in Iraq when a truck in front of him was blown up by a roadside bomb and the American men inside were burned alive. “He was there at the end to pick up the hands and arms,” Ms. Mosier said. “They take a normal kid, he comes back messed up, then nobody was there for him when he came back. They discharged him so they didn’t’ have to treat him,” added Linda Mosier. Steve Robinson, director of veterans affairs at Veterans for America, a Washington, D.C.-based soldiers’ rights group, pointed out military doctors have been facing an overflow of wounded soldiers and a shortage of rooms, supplies and time to treat them. “By calling PTSD a personality disorder, they usher one soldier out quickly, freeing up space for the three or four who are waiting,” he said.
A lawyer for Trial Defense Services, an Army unit designed to guide soldiers through their 5-13 discharge and who was also unidentified by Kors said: “Right now, the Army is eating its own. What I want to see is that these soldiers get the right diagnosis, so they can get the right help, not to be thrown to the wolves right away. That is what they’re doing.”
As for injured veteran Jon Town --- whose case was brought by Robinson to the attention of Deputy Surgeon General Gale Pollock and others --- Town says that is doing his best to keep his head in check and that his nightmares have diminished. “I have my good days and my bad days,” he said. “It all depends on whether I wake up in Findlay, Ohio or Iraq.”
#
(Sherwood Ross is a Miami-based columnist who writes on military and political affairs. Reach him at sherwoodr1@yahoo.com)
Sherwood Ross
(Top)
(Top)
COMMENTS
COMMENT
FEEDBACK
In the interest of intelligent debate and diversity of perspective, Virtual Citizens will publish well reasoned letters of agreement or dissent.If you would not like to see your email published here or want any information excluded (name or email), please specifically state so in your message.