I lost it tonight when I heard this on KO, as you all know I am 100% Permanent and Totally disabled by the VA rated just for my PTSD that is service connected from an incident that happened in February 1975, while at Fort Wainwright, Alaska when I was there for Operation Jack Frost 1975.
I have multiple "stressor incidents" over my 15 years of Army service, and as a professional Non Commissioned Officer and all of the NCO Academy's, I had all the training the military had for combat situations, my military specialty was Infantry, as a private, a Corporal, a Sergeant Squad leader, and as a Staff Sergeant Platoon Sergeant, section Sergeant in some Staff offices. Contrary to Mrs. McCains assertions, there is no training to prevent military personnel from being affected by PTSD.
I went looking for what I could find about what she said and where, I wanted to be sure of what I was quoting, especially given her caustic remarks about Senator Obama not funding her son, and she thinks Senator Obama should wear her shoes for a day.
What day would that be, the day she got busted for narcotic abuse, the day the DEA got involved, the day her Senator husband got her a deal that no other drug abuser of her level would get. The incident where the doctor of her charity lost his license over her drug abuse?
Perhaps McCain's lack of support for veterans is why his wife Cindy during an interview with Marie Claire suggested that her husband has never had PTSD symptoms because " he was trained." She also added that symptoms such as "cold sweats in the middle of the night" are reserved for the "the 18-year-olds who were drafted". Veterans groups have fought long and hard to get PTSD recognized by the VA, to guarantee treatment for those who return home from war. In one ignorant moment Cindy McCain implies that PTSD is limited to un-trained young troops.
Marie Claire Interview
MC: I heard that when you were in Vietnam recently, you found yourself in the same hospital room where your husband was taken after he was shot down. How did that feel? Surreal, or all too real?
CM: Yeah, actually, that’s a great description of it. You know, I had this feeling that that was the place. Don’t ask me why, because I don’t know. And then they proceeded to tell me that indeed it was the hospital and it was the room where he’d been photographed — you know, that famous photograph of him.
MC: Did you get a chill?
CM: I did. I got a chill, and I also was very poignantly reminded of just how strong my husband is, how tough and determined.
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
I am sure John McCain would be the first person to tell you he has no problems from PTSD, I know, I did it from 1975 until Nov 2002 when I finally was forced by my 5th wife to go to the VA and seek help due to my sleeplessness and irrational behavior, I was the last one to admit I had a problem. The VA doctors had no problem diagnosing what was wrong.
The hospital I go to, does not let a doctor make the diagnosis, they use a three person intake team, they all interview you, there are numerous tests they put you thru, MMPI, CAPS etc all in all it took about three months before the team told my treating psychiatrist, my wife and I what their determination was, I had a GAF score of 30, and they considered me permantently and totally disabled just from my PTSD, regardless of my other medical issues.
It took veterans from the time Vietnam ended until 1980 before the mental health community was able to get the diagnosis of PTSD added to the DSM III, and unlike what Cidy McCain alledges that only 18 year old draftees get PTSD, it affects anyone and everyone, Senator Max Cleland was a Captain when he was injured in Vietnam, he did not seek counseling for his PTSD until about 2 years ago, and then went public with it, so other veterans also might seek help even 35-40 years later.
Max Cleland was a US Senator, a former head of the VA in the Carter Administration, approx 30% of all Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are showing symptoms of PTSD, these are all volunteers, the draft ended in 1974, so how does this jive with Cindy McCains definition?
How do the victims of Hurricane's Rita, Katrina and Ike feel about her comments, many of them have PTSD from the storms, what about the thousands of New Yorkers who have mental health problems from 9-11, are they all uneducated draftees also?
I think Cindy McCain owes all of the nations veterans a real apology, this is not the faux outrage over a funding vote, I wonder if she was as mad at John when he voted against funding the troops before Obama voted against funding the troops, Obama wanted a timeline to help all the troops and bring the war to an end, Senator McCain only wants to fund the war as long as he can keep it going, for as long as he wants. I prefer Senator Obama's position, which now is also the Iraqi position and the current White House position, the only odd man out is John McCain and sarah Palin.