CRUEL and unusual punishment...Nearby Firing Ranges Complicate Soldiers' Recovery

[babylonsister]

Nearby Firing Ranges Complicate Soldiers' Recovery From Stress

For some soldiers housed at the Warrior Transition Battalion at Fort Benning, Ga., the nearby firing range brings back memories of their time in combat and aggravates their symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 3, 2008; Page A01


FORT BENNING, Ga. -- Army Sgt. Jonathan Strickland sits in his room at noon with the blinds drawn, seeking the sleep that has eluded him since he was knocked out by the blast of a Baghdad car bomb.

Like many of the wounded soldiers living in the newly built "warrior transition" barracks here, the soft-spoken 25-year-old suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. But even as Strickland and his comrades struggle with nightmares, anxiety and flashbacks from their wartime experiences, the sounds of gunfire have followed them here, just outside their windows.

Across the street from their assigned housing, about 200 yards away, are some of the Army infantry's main firing ranges, and day and night, several days each week, barrages from rifles and machine guns echo around Strickland's building. The noise makes the wounded cringe, startle in their formations, and stay awake and on edge, according to several soldiers interviewed at the barracks last month. The gunfire recently sent one soldier to the emergency room with an anxiety attack, they said.

"You hear a lot of shots, it puts you in a defensive mode," said Strickland, who spent a year with an infantry platoon in Baghdad and has since received a diagnosis of PTSD from the military. He now takes medicine for anxiety and insomnia. "My heart starts racing and I get all excited and irritable," he said, adding that the adrenaline surge "puts me back in that mind frame that I am actually there."

Soldiers interviewed said complaints to medical personnel at Fort Benning's Martin Army Community Hospital and officers in their chain of command have brought no relief, prompting one soldier's father to contact The Washington Post. Fort Benning officials said that they were unaware of specific complaints but that decisions about housing and treatment for soldiers with PTSD depend on the severity of each case. They said day and night training must continue as new soldiers arrive and the Army grows.

more...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/02/AR2008060202983.html?hpid=topnews

[Coexist]

1. wtf is wrong with these people??

can they not figure out that this is a pretty mean thing to do to these soldiers?

[babylonsister]

3. I think 'pretty mean' doesn't even start to describe this. nt

[malaise]

2. Good fugging grief

I give up.

[babylonsister]

4. I won't give up, but I'm pissed off; I won't let this drop. nt

[babylonsister]

5. .

[tuckessee]

6. They should stop all loud noises & sudden movements around shell shocked vets.

Or maybe it would easier to ship the basket cases off to a quiet island somewhere.

[babylonsister]

7. They were "newly built" barracks. Don't you think placing them

somewhere other than near a firing range might have been the logical place to put them? And you probably can't even imagine how many 'basket cases' there are out there, besides which, that's a disgusting, derogatory term, but you probably don't recognize that either.