Keep 'Em Away From My Marines
Someone who has been there is more credible
by Sgt Christopher C. Pascale
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| Provide instructors who have been there, done that, and have credibility. (Photo by Tyler B. Barstow.) |
>Sgt Pascale is currently assigned to 8th Engineer Support Battalion, Camp Lejeune. The events described in this article didn’t happen while he was assigned to his current unit. This article was Sgt Pascale’s Chase Prize Essay Contest entry.
There is nothing more confusing, disheartening, and discouraging to a Marine who is going to go to, or has just returned from, war than for another serviceman, Marine or not, with little or no credibility, telling him about the Law of War, Code of Conduct, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). During the past 41/2 years that I have been in the Corps I’ve seen captains who are attorneys, skilled in litigation, rather than engineers, infantryman, or those from the intelligence community speak to young men and women, Active and Reserve, about the Law of War and the Code of Conduct in ways that lead them to believe that the only purpose for the period of instruction is to tell them that they are very likely to go to prison if they are on either end of a violent situation that may occur during their deployment.
Returning from Iraq in 2005, we generally angry, depressed, and in some cases suicidal Marines attended a class on PTSD given by a second lieutenant who had not been to Iraq with us, did not know what we were going through, and appeared to be on the end of a “tag, you’re it” situation where he won the prize of being the slide reader. Our consolation, in turn, was to feel our blood pressure rise while this Marine learned the degrees of his comfort when talking in front of people and which will make him feel like quite the colonel when he addresses his own battalion one day in the future.
During the course of this article you will see the value of steering the education of the bulk of the Corps away from what pleases those who think they are qualified to teach me and my peers and toward that of what is best for the young men and women who will have their boots on the ground out in the cities of Iraq and Afghanistan for weeks or months. While at the same time the doctors are at home or in the hospitals doing their good work; the lawyers are in The Basic School, court, or the officers’ club; and the second lieutenants are still wondering if they should quit or not and bring their degrees in engineering or economics over to corporate America where their management training will not require a sidearm.
During the summer of 2007, while preparing to deploy to Iraq, I attended a class with my Reserve unit out of Michigan. The instructor, an attorney and a captain, opened by asking how many of us did not believe that there should be laws in war. The majority of the hands went up. The captain asked a sergeant to explain why, and he, in an ignorant Ann Coulter-style, answered, “They [the insurgents] don’t follow them, so why should we?” The captain did not have an answer. Philosophically, she could have talked about war being a last resort, and because it is so, we must reduce unnecessary damage where we can. Diplomatically, she could have informed us about the damage it would cause us and the benefit it would give our enemies in terms of support from nations neutral to our cause. Sensibly, she could have asked this sergeant if he had ever been activated for deployment before, because an answer such as his is more often one of fear than conviction.
This captain, however, could do none of those things, because she was not prepared to speak to an audience of young men and women who were unsure of themselves in the face of the worst that war can offer, and who were armed with the depth of strong rifle skills and the despair of insecurity. The conversations that followed involved young Marines asking what would happen if they shot someone who was not a combatant. The answer of prison provoked the inquiry of whether or not they’d go to prison “if I just shot him in the leg.” Control was lost only to be regained by the comment of the lieutenant colonel (also a lawyer) that it was time to move on, helpful only in enforcing that we do not shoot to maim but to kill.
Following this class I was fortunate enough to be chosen to address the Marines one platoon at a time to teach on the Law of War and Code of Conduct. Although only qualified by way of experience, I was able to serve these young Marines in a capacity that was perhaps larger than anything else I had done in garrison. I was able to speak to the Marines from firsthand experience about watching detainees and delivering them to an imperfect justice system.
I was able to tell privates first class and lance corporals about the truth of how they will think of different ways that they could murder the detainees and possibly get away with it, telling them what went through my mind when we searched homes in Fallujah and detained suspects after finding caches of illegal weapons in or around their homes. I was able to tell them that they will do nothing of the sort because they are professional military personnel and will not disgrace themselves, their Nation, or their families.
Another dimension I was able to cover with these Marines was that I was able to incorporate some of their experiences with civilian law enforcement—many police officers walk their beats every day and believe that they are at war. The police officers have rules, some of which constrain them from pursuing traffic violators because of the risk assessed in the chase and the danger it poses to those they are sworn to protect. All of those in attendance agreed that they prefer the police officers we depend on to have rules that regulate them in accordance with our rights as citizens.
The final matter of PTSD is not merely limited to young, inexperienced Marines offered the opportunity to give the period of instruction. The largest hurdle here at Camp Lejeune comes from the mental health office. Following the determination that I would not deploy with my unit because of my pending expiration of active service and unwillingness to voluntarily extend my contract past 5 years, I approached the training chief regarding the Marines about to come home so as to intercept the possibility of another PTSD class like I, and many of the Marines coming home, had received in the fall of 2005. Following the go-ahead I contacted the chaplain, the community counseling center, and finally the mental health office where I came into contact with one of the doctors who worked there.
She told me that she had all of the best available information I needed to give a class and that she would be glad to be there for the Marines. I informed her of some ideas I had that the Marines would relate to, such as opening with a clip from the movie Back to School where comedian Sam Kinison plays Professor Turgeson who opens his lesson by encouraging the class to interpret “one of the easiest events in the last twenty years of American history. Now, can someone tell me why, in nineteen seventy five, we pulled our troops out of Vietnam?” A young girl sitting front row center answers, “The failure of Vietnamization to win popular support caused an ongoing erosion of confidence in the various American but illegal Saigon regimes.” Professor Turgeson asks the class if she is right.
He knows that is the popular version of what went on over there, but he does not believe it, because he was there. “I wasn’t in a classroom thinking about it, hoping I was right....” Just as the students are compelled to believe that this may very well be the most valuable educational experience of their lives, Professor Turgeson flies loose by further stating, “I was up to my knees in rice paddies with guns that didn’t work going up against Charlie, slugging it out with him, while [people] like you,” he screams as he is right up in the girl’s face, “were back here partying, putting headbands on, doing drugs, listening to the [expletive deleted] Beatles!” The reaction is insane, but that is why the Marines can relate to it.
They had adjusted to more stress than they were aware of for more than half a year, and while the vulgarity and the anger may seem vain and even hilarious to some, the Marines I know laugh because someone understands how they may be feeling. The conclusion of the phone call with the doctor involved her reluctantly saying that she thought it might be an interesting concept for some enlisted personnel to receive training so that they may possibly be trusted to deliver the hard cold facts about PTSD.
Most recently I spoke with a corpsman at the Mental Health Clinic aboard Camp Lejeune who had just returned home from a deployment in Fallujah, Iraq. He had worked as a psychology technician in Fallujah Surgical. The “Doc” is skilled and knowledgeable. Speaking to him over the phone was very helpful, but he did not come home with the same problems as those who were out in the city. He has never experienced the shooting pain in his back that follows the sight of trash in the road on his way home, swerving in order to avoid it, almost hitting his neighbor’s house in the process, and grateful there is no one walking on the sidewalk nearby (hypervigilance). He will not spend Christmas Day on duty with a pistol on his hip considering whether or not to blow his brains out.
I am not saying the corpsman and doctor are not useful. If anything, a person who can offer a sympathetic ear is exactly what I needed when I sought counseling at the Community Counseling Center, but the period of instruction on PTSD can be a dual-benefit, one-time event where a Marine who is humble enough to talk about the challenges he faced upon coming home can help Marines and sailors much like himself as they embark upon the same hard road he has walked.
In conclusion, it is imperative that the doctors, lawyers, and second lieutenants be kept where they belong and are most successful—in the hospitals and law offices and training with their platoons. The Marines who are coming home have the best opportunities for help available to them, but it can be better. The best initial impression can only come from someone who they trust and believe knows what they are going through, such as a former serviceman who has been to war or a gunnery sergeant or captain they have known previously. The answer is not to put virtually anyone but a doctor, lawyer, or second lieutenant in this training environment. The answer is to provide what is best for the Marines and sailors about to go to, or who have just returned from, war.
