I confess from the start that my mind goes in strange places and makes odd connections. This diary is about one of the oddest of the connections. I was watching MSNBC last night, hearing about the militarization of our police forces and for some reason I thought of Russ.
Russ was a camp counsellor when I was a CIT (Counsellor in training) at camp back in 1971. Russ was in charge of the CITs. He was a remarkable man. An AFA graduate, he was smart, polished, sensible, practical, even tempered, even handed, sensitive ... I always wished I could be like Russ, but as a female that was unthinkable back then. I certainly wanted to raise boys that would be like him. I did not have a crush on Russ, he was in a league way beyond that. He was close to perfect. Except ... he had been in a war zone known as Viet Nam, and was recipient of purple hearts and a silver cross. He had seen battle. He was suffering from what was then called Battle Fatigue, or Shell Shock. Today we would call it PTSD. He had seen and lived through too much. And this is what made me think of him as I watched events transpire in Ferguson.
As I mentioned earlier, Russ was nearly perfect. But events in Viet Nam that had honed his instincts and reflexes to a fine point, and had saved his life and the life of his men more than once were taking their toll. You rarely saw it. But when you did, you thought, Oh, my God!
For example, initially he bunked, as all the counsellors did, with the campers. But one night, one camper had to go out to the bathroom. He was coming back in from his bio break, trying to be quiet so as not to disturb the others. He took three steps into the cabin and BOOM! Russ was on top of the camper, holding the camper in a choke hold, and shouting at the camper in Vietnamese. The camper sneaking into the cabin caused Russ to think he was Viet Cong about to do harm to the others in the cabin. Russ' reaction was what had saved his life and the life of fellow soldiers in Viet Nam, but it was not something workable in a cabin full of pubescent boys. After that, Russ slept in the medical building, removed from campers. During the day, Russ was perfect, but at night, going to the bathroom could cost a camper dearly.
On the fourth of July, Russ was extremely nervous at the explosions from fireworks. He paced back and forth and jerked his head every time a firework went off. The rockets made him crazy. Finally he went outside where the fireworks display was being held. One rocket got away and was heading toward the crowd of campers. Before the rocket could reach the crowd, Russ had knocked down the campers in the path of the rocket. There is no question that without his instinctive reaction, some campers would have been burned. But there is no question, that reaction was not something one would expect from a normal citizen in every day life.
I don't know what happened to Russ, but I know that he was someone who would bring wonderful benefits to anybody who would hire him 99.9% of the time. But under times of stress, if he was feeling attacked, he could have been unpredictable. I don't know for sure, I never saw him after that summer and we did not stay in touch.
The reason Ferguson started me thinking about Russ was the observation of the militarization of our police forces. Many of our veterans, after serving our military honorably, then in Viet Nam, and now in Iraq and Afghanistan, come back and are hired by police forces. This is not a bad thing. In fact, in many respects, I think the training they receive in the military make veterans ideal police officers for almost any typical police situation. In my time in the defense industry I worked with many combat veterans, and most of the time they were excellent colleagues. However, sometimes, when they felt stressed or threatened, they were scary. For all these people, I believe firmly that 99% of the time, veterans are an excellent return on an employer's investment. But during times of stress, I have some questions.
For example, many of our veterans have PTSD. Some if it is treated, some of it is not treated. Many cases are not recognized, even by the veteran him/her self. These people are high functioning individuals in the vast number of situations, and they may never encounter a circumstance that triggers their PTSD reflexes. But there could be that one off situation, that time when a hidden trigger is hit, that could cause a reaction.
Even veterans who do not have PTSD have a challenge. They are trained to behave in combat situations, when the stakes are life and death. This is also true of police officers, except that what is acceptable on a battle field is not acceptable in our cities policing our citizens. Killing an enemy combatant is one thing, killing a citizen is different. Yes, there are times when killing a citizen is unavoidable, but the bar is set higher than for an enemy combatant. Soldiers are trained to protect themselves and other soldiers in life or death situations. The training for domestic policing is different both in objectives and, therefore, procedures. Thus, a police officer trained in the military, falling back on combat training in a domestic policing situation, is not the goal.
I support police departments hiring veterans when they come home for a number of reasons. First and foremost, I believe that when somebody has honorably served the country in combat situations deserves employment on his/her return. It is only decent for our country to provide for those who serve. Second, these veterans have skills that we need, and many of these skills were honed in their time overseas. Dealing peaceably with people of a different culture who speak a different language is excellent training for dealing with a variety of people in different circumstances. These veterans have learned discipline and precision in their military experience.
But I also believe that there are things from the combat situation that have to be untrained. The responses and procedures and even the reflexive responses have to be recalibrated for domestic policing. I ask myself, who should undertake this retraining? Should the military take some time to prepare soldiers for post-military life before they are returned as civilians? Should police departments have retraining specifically for combat veterans? I don't know.
I don't know how many of the police officers in Ferguson police department, or the St. Louis County police department are combat veterans. I don't know if any have PTSD, or other responses created by living in a combat zone that could be triggered by demonstrations, noise, etc. Part of me thinks that there are a number of combat veterans, based on how they responded to the loud crowds, while part of me sees these guys playing with the military equipment their force has acquired and thinks they have no idea what to do with that equipment, so they must not have ever been around it. I do know that there are many combat veterans in police departments all over the country, and I know that we talk about militarizing of police departments in general. I want them to be able to serve us here at home. I want them to be able to serve us successfully.