Thursday, October 9, 2008

No Cold Sweats, But What About PTSD?

It was 1984, I had been back from Vietnam for 16 years when my PTSD kicked in BIG TIME. I was an ex college student age 22 when I hit the deck in Nam. I was Regular Army, four year volunteer, with several months of special training for Nam, including escape and evasion. I had some serious bouts with PTSD right after I came back but because I was still in the military I didn't see anyone about it. In 1984 I did(my wife made me). I am still taking meds for it.




(Me, Mine own self at Lai Khe, RVN 1967)


So Imagine my surprised when I discovered that John McCain had been given training which prevented his getting PTSD even though he was a prisoner of war.

Cindy McCain in an interview with the fashion source Marie Claire says it is so.


Source:

http://www.marieclaire.com/world/news/cindy-mccain-interview-election?src=rss


"Cindy McCain Rolls Up Her Sleeves"
By Sam Dealey
Excerpts:



MC: You met your husband after his POW days. To what extent is that still with you — or is it a part of history?


CM: My husband will be the first one to tell you that that’s in the past. Certainly it’s a part of who he is, but he doesn’t dwell on it. It’s not part of a daily experience that we experience or anything like that. But it has shaped him. It has made him the leader that he is.



MC: But no cold sweats in the middle of the night?


CM: Oh, no, no, no, no, no. My husband, he’d be the first one to tell you that he was trained to do what he was doing. The guys who had the trouble were the 18-year-olds who were drafted. He was trained, he went to the Naval Academy, he was a trained United States naval officer, and so he knew what he was doing.




Gee, Cindy, why didn't I get that training? Say, was it secret? You know I had a really high security clearance and I don't ever remember hearing about such training. Maybe the Navy kept it to themselves, or maybe it was just for officers and gentlemen, or academy types.




It is obvious the John McCain doesn't suffer from flashbacks. It has never shown itself publicly. Has it? Because it not part of his daily experience. Really?





"October 8, 2008, 6:53 pm
McCain Addresses ‘My Fellow Prisoners’
Elizabeth Holmes reports from Strongsville, Ohio, on the presidential race.
In a campaign with plenty of gaffes to go around, John McCain added one to the mix Wednesday. The Republican presidential candidate addressed a crowd in Pennsylvania as “my fellow prisoners.”
McCain made the slip while discussing his plans for the economy, including health care and energy policies. “Across this country, this is the agenda I have set before my fellow prisoners,” he said. The prepared remarks, which the campaign distributed during the speech, showed he meant to say “citizens.” The Arizona senator was a prisoner of war, spending nearly six years in Vietnam. He often talks about his experiences on the campaign trail, albeit briefly."

(http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/10/08/mccain-addresses-my-fellow-prisoners/ )




No night sweats, no temper fits, no physical abuse, no PTSD, John is a true superman.


Me, well I'm just a stupid shelp who couldn't control his psychological health like John did.


Well I guess I'm put in my true place now. Thanks Cindy for the insight!

5 comments:

BB-Idaho said...

Wonder if wife #1 would say the same thing?

drlobojo said...

I went looking for Carol McCain's reaction to his PTSD (which he most obviously has) and didn't find anywhere she would talk about it.
I did find however an article in the UK's Daily Mail where she talked to the paper. More interestingly I found where Ross Perot talk to the paper about her and John.

Carol remained resolutely loyal as McCain’s political star rose. She says she agreed to talk to The Mail on Sunday only because she wanted to publicise her support for the man who abandoned her.
Indeed, the old Mercedes that she uses to run errands displays both a disabled badge and a sticker encouraging people to vote for her ex-husband. ‘He’s a good guy,’ she assured us. ‘We are still good friends. He is the best man for president.’"

"But Ross Perot, who paid her medical bills all those years ago, now believes that both Carol McCain and the American people have been taken in by a man who is unusually slick and cruel – even by the standards of modern politics.
‘McCain is the classic opportunist. He’s always reaching for attention and glory,’ he said.
‘After he came home, Carol walked with a limp. So he threw her over for a poster girl..."


Doesn't say too much good about us that we think of turds like these as our leaders.

BB-Idaho said...

Doesn't sound like midshipman McCain had time for Escape & Evasion training (but, given the source is Ted Sampley of the Swiftboat nutcases, whose to say?

drlobojo said...

I would assume that John did have escape and evasion training. Surely he must have.
I myself, I cheated.
Me and a couple of others volunteered a day earlier to help plant the whiz-bangs and smoke bombs on the escape and evasion course, scoped the place out and then when they started we skipped out to an off base bar for the evening.

BB-Idaho said...

Skipped E&E? Wish I would have:
1963-Ft McClellan, AL
Chemical Officer Basic Course-
..in theory you break into small
groups and move under the cover of night. In reality, you struggle through one of those Alabama thunderstorms...right into an
'agressor' listening post across the lane. Taken to prison camp for interrogation. Given 'injections' of truth serum,
berated about how bad America is.
Naturally, you give only your name, rank and serial number. In my case, locked inside an upright
locker. Lighted matches thrust through the louvres. I blow them out. Earning the reputation of a smart-ass prisoner. Me and my locker are hauled to the compound center and buried in a mud hole..
I'm thinking gosh, should I have given more info? Maybe not blown out the matches? About that time, I heard the 'tac committee' guys
telling the agressors they are acting too dangerously..so I get hauled out, given a once over by the local flight surgeon; allowed to 'escape' over the concertina wire. Slept it off in a rainy swamp. "What did you do in the war, Daddy?" Nuthin, son, I was
damn lucky..it hadn't gotten going
yet.