Well said, Silouan. I'm still amazed that after decades of knowing the intimate relationship between active combat and PTSD (I mean, for goodness sake, they formed the theory of PTSD by talking to Vietnam Vets!) that medium-term routine counseling isn't practically demanded by the military at debriefing.
The tough part is that with all these multiple deployments everyone in the system is spun very tight. That is why I've just dove in to help, they need the support from all of us to successfully combat the issue. My therapy, is giving back.
Thanks for everyone's supportive words.
The problem with PTSD is extremly bad for Guard soldiers in particular. They often return without jobs (despite the fact that it is illegal to fire them, they can be "laid off" instead) or, if they have jobs they only have about 2 weeks paid leave upon return unless they have savings/leave accrued. As well, they force the returning soldiers to stay on base just miles from family for up to a month doing out processing stateside. Most active duty guys are released on leave, then return back to work as a full time soldier and outprocess as a daily work shift until it is done.
I can't say how happy I am that I am a vet's spouse, and not a military spouse. The guard is rarely given much (if any in some cases) equipment, but expected to do the same job. And they are deployed LONGER then the active duty component because they piecemeal orders together that way they are only "active duty" for the required year or less and could be "training" or "pre-mobilizing" for up to 9 months (or longer if you include multiple 2 week trainings a month, 5 day drills and the like). My husband was on orders July 2008 on, but in order to avoid paying us housing allowance, medical insurance and separation pay they would make sure the orders were for 30 days at a time. So he would be gone months at a time with stacks of orders. He was "deployed" 1-09 to 11-09 but he was GONE 7-08 to 11-09. Then he had to attend drills for months after his return without being paid stop loss. In the active branch you are paid stop loss for each month you are still active duty. So if you worked ONE DAY you would receive the $500 for stop loss. But being required to go to a 3 day drill (and miss work) apparently doesn't count. My husband is missing out on GI Bill money because of the way they did the orders before he left. A break of even one day between orders makes the time on the orders not useable on your DD214. You receive you GI bill benefits based on the amount of active duty service you can claim on you DD214. If you are active duty (read-full time) military every moment is credited, not the case for guard soldiers.
