PTSD victim booted for ‘misconduct’

[unhappycamper]

PTSD victim booted for ‘misconduct’
By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Jan 7, 2009 12:55:53 EST

After serving two tours in Iraq — tours filled with killing enemy combatants and watching close friends die — Sgt. Adam Boyle, 27, returned home expecting the Army to take care of him.

Instead, service member advocates and Boyle’s mother say his chain of command in the 3rd Psychological Operations Battalion at Fort Bragg, N.C., worked to end his military career at the first sign of weakness.

In October, a medical evaluation board physician at Bragg recommended that Boyle go through the military disability retirement process for chronic post-traumatic stress disorder — which is supposed to automatically earn him at least a 50 percent disability retirement rating — as well as for chronic headaches. The doctor also diagnosed Boyle with alcohol abuse and said he was probably missing formations due to the medications doctors put him on to treat his PTSD.

But in December, Lt. Gen. John Mulholland, commanding general of the U.S. Army Special Operations Command, signed an order forcing Boyle out on an administrative discharge for a “pattern of misconduct,” and ordering that the soldier pay back his re-enlistment bonus.

Last year, after a number of troops diagnosed with PTSD were administratively forced out for “personality disorders” following combat deployments, the Defense Department changed its rules: The pertinent service surgeon general now must sign off on any personality-disorder discharge if a service member has been diagnosed with PTSD.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/01/military_ptsd_discharge_010709w/%2e

[crikkett]

1. It's a really tough call isn't it?

If you have someone missing formations and generally being unruly, you don't have a functioning unit, and the Army commander knows that his unit must be functional if he wants any hope of it surviving operations. One Sorry Sap, however justifiable his problems, can ruin the attitude of everyone else in the unit, and cohesion and discipline is lost.

So I'd hesitate to condemn the commander for discharging a soldier who can't hack it anymore, there's no place for him in active duty. I do wonder about the order to repay the enlistment bonus. I'm sure he more than earned it in combat.

I'm glad the rules changed. I wish the Army/DoD were better prepared to take care of its broken soldiers. We're not toys.