Before reading this please read, or re-read the the NPR link given in the post “A Digression of Sorts”- here is the link again: http://www.npr.org/2011/11/28/142662840/militarys-brain-testing-program-a-debacle. There is more to that story, but the debacle of the WTB with and without the MEB system (that is the Medical Evaluation Board system) dwarfs the totally useless Traumatic Brain Injury mess for size, and total lunacy. I can not imagine the actual cost in dollars and even the most dedicated nerd buried deep in the bowels of the Pentagon could not manufacture a realistic figure. But the cost in human suffering to the soldiers, sailors, marines, airman who have sustained some kind of trauma, both emotional and physical, made worse by the military bureaucracy, can be told in the stories of those servicemen and woman who pay a price of their service they can not imagine. It is into this morass that Eddie stepped when he returned to his home base. Inadequately evaluated and treated for PTSD and Major Depression Eddie spun out of control in the Fall of 2010 and the system that is supposed to take care of him failed miserably. It is not that Eddie fell through the cracks. You might say he fell off the edge of the Grand Canyon into an abyss that has no structure. It is an organization that has no clothes, but if you are a soldier caught up in this web you think the system is clothed in a vast system of safeguards created to take care of its own. I suspect billions have been spent creating this facade and the WTB is part of that web. A soldier dedicated to his unit and the soldiers who called him Doc, Eddie was wrestling with the demons of PTSD: re-experiencing those traumatic events he was untrained to deal with; seeing again and again the faces of soldiers as their lives ran out. And he was constantly reminded of these horrors because, in his daily activity, he was surrounded by men and women in green combat uniforms, and he felt guilty for even thinking about hiding from his responsibilities. He later recalled how he lost the ability to feel things that he previously enjoyed; he knew he should feel emotions, but the feeling was just not there; and he avoided contact with others as much as he could. He was afraid to tell anyone the images dominating his thoughts. His fears became delusions and finally he became paranoid about people even when they were trying to help him and he had to get away; he ran trying to find a way to deal with thoughts that terrified him. Unsure of where to go for help, he drove to Atlanta. He was, in fact, out of touch with reality and the only person in the world he trusted was his mother. In January 2011 he felt his only escape was to commit suicide and he tried to kill himself twice: first by overdose, and then by cutting his wrists. But somehow he was able to call his mother and she called for help and he was admitted to a psychiatric unit in Atlanta. Finally he could get the treatment he needed. No simple task but there are dedicated people who have devoted themselves to taking care of just this type of illness and the complicated biological- psychological and social consequences. However, coming down the backstretch is the WTB and the smothering military bureaucracy. The system has held Eddie in suspended animation for the last year. We are approaching the anniversary of his initial hospital admission with no end in sight. More to come…..