Capt. Kamaljit Singh Kalsi (right), a doctor, and 2nd Lt. Tejdeep Singh Rattan, a dentist, are appealing to the Army to allow them to continue to wear their beards, long hairÊand turbans, asÊmandated by their Sikh faith, though it would violate Army regulations. Courtesy of Sihk Coalition/Army Times

So let me get this straight: two U.S. Army officers, who happen to be devout Sikhs ( a Hindu-based religion) are now fighting the Army on religious grounds in order to wear head turbans , longer hair and beards while in uniform.

They argue that they shouldn’t be forced to choose between serving their country and abiding by their religion. See the full story here.

The Army’s answer, so far, has been a flat-out “no” and I hope it stays that way. Here’s why: These two soldiers, Capt. Kamaljeet Kalsi, a physician, and 2nd Lt. Tejdeep Singh Rattan, a dentist, knew the Army had strict uniform requirements when they signed up. Nobody gets special treatment, especially officers who are supposed to set the example for their lower-ranking peers.

The officers s argue that  their recruiter(s) told them it was OK to wear turbans and beards while in uniform  -  yet recruiters aren’t the final authority on that policy. My guess is that their recruiter(s) were so anxious to bring in hard-to-get medical personnel  that they overstated the Army’s leniency on uniforms, or maybe they deliberately misled the recruits to get them to sign up.

I also find it interesting that this issue comes up only after that the Army has presumably paid the full cost of their medical training. The officers point out that nobody complained about their religious garb during the several years they spent in medical school.

But now they’re expected to  serve on active duty, wearing the uniform of their rank. That includes head gear and a clean-shaven face (moustaches are allowed).

That’s how it should be. I’ve yet to see the military cut anyone slack in wearing a uniform, with the exception of a different shoe after foot surgery or some similar temporary arrangenent,

In my mind, requiring these officers to wear the uniform is not tantamount to cutting them off from their religious beliefs. They can still practice their religion and wear turbans on their own time. As for the beards, well, the military hasn’t allowed beards for the last century or so. These officers must have known that when they chose to volunteered. If wearing a beard was so important to them, they should have investigated that possibility before signing up. I’m sure they noticed that no one else in the Army has a beard.

A lot of us in the military would like to tweak our uniform here and there but the bottom line is we are one team, one fight — and that goes for looking alike too.

The VA and the Pentagon have come a long way in considering post-traumatic stress disorder as a disability. But despite the fact that the post-traumatic stress was acquired in combat or in a war zone, they decided recently not to consider it an injury.

If they did, they would have to award the Purple Heart to people with PTSD.

While visiting a mental health center in Texas last year, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the Purple Heart needed to be revisited as it pertained to servicemembers suffering from PTSD. But the Pentagon decided against doing so because the condition “had not been intentionally caused by enemy in action, like a bomb or a bullet.”

So, must injuries be seen before they can be acknowledged?

I honestly don’t know.

Would a separate award for servicemembers with PTSD be a solution, or would it continue to stigmatize emotional injury?

Some of the branches give out awards like candy — you know who you are! They’ll give out unit awards even when some of the recipients were not directly involved in an operation, for example. And every servicemember gets a national defense medal.

But the Purple Heart really is a special award. It symbolizes sacrifice — that you were willing to lay down your life for your country — and perhaps the recipient did make the ultimate sacrifice. It’s also very prestigious — you notice the Purple Heart on someone’s rack.

But as one traumatologist said, blood must be shed before the award can be given.

Many of us have seen behavioral changes in people with traumatic brain injuries. The effects of a TBI are not that much different from PTSD, it’s just that one can be readily seen on an MRI. And because it can be seen, the head injury received in a war zone qualifies for the Purple Heart.

The military has come quite a ways in recognizing the mental damage caused by war — and how could it not? It’s always been a factor, even though it’s been given different names: shell-shock, combat fatigue. And it’s prevalent: The New York Timesreported that one in five servicemembers — 300,000 men and women – struggle with PTSD or major depression.

They know what it’s like: You come back from war and you can’t hold down a job or maintain a happy home life. You can’t control your mind, you can’t shake those disturbing thoughts, and it causes you to go into a terror, to avoid going out in public, to not feel safe behind the wheel of a car.

Isn’t that damage from the war? In my mind it is — but is it Purple Heart material?

I don’t know.

And apparently the Pentagon isn’t ready to make it so.

It seems like servicemembers are divided on this, too. And actually, there’s some real animosity toward people who want a Purple Heart for mental injuries. There is a debate out there about how much PTSD is faked: Because you cannot quantify it, there is suspicion in the ranks that some servicemembers are faking PTSD largely to get a higher disability rating. Would they fake it to try to get a Purple Heart?

PTSD is stigmatized. A person who suffers from it doesn’t come home as an injured war hero– they don’t have a battle scar to show. They have nothing to point to to say this is what war did to me. It’s in their behavior, and their behavior can be frightening to others and undefined. It’s lumped into this huge category called PTSD, and you don’t know how it’s going to turn out. It’s an unpredictable, unseen result of combat.

A servicemember with conventional injuries from war might walk with a limp. Maybe when it starts to rain it hurts. But there’s a beginning and an end to the injury, whereas PTSD can be a lifetime of pain that in some ways is a worse injury to come home with. And then there’s the stigma of being mentally weak.

I think we have a hard time defining what we can’t see.

I really would like to know what Oklahomans think about this. Please let us know your views.

But PTSD is a risk factor for those of us who experience traumatic situations and events. As Dr. Frank Ochberg, a psychiatrist who’s led research into PTSD, explains, it happens to normal people reacting to things that are terribly abnormal.

And when the actual traumatic event has passed, it seems impossible to regain your former sense of normalcy. It’s like my friend, war correspondent Darrin Mortenson, said, if you’re back home or between tours but you just can’t wait to get back over to the fight, that might be a sign that what was once normal to you has changed in a very serious way. Some of the most common symptoms of PTSD are sudden, intrusive memories of terrifying events — memories that you wish would go away but won’t and which leave your heart racing; irritability; an inability to reconnect with loved ones; irrational fears; and hypervigilance. More information about PTSD can be found here: http://www.ptsdinfo.org/

Plenty of returning veterans are resilient and don’t succumb to PTSD, but others do — the levels of stress endured in war are different for everyone. And just because you might have PTSD doesn’t mean you’re not tough or strong or able to do your job – in fact, it takes a tough person to admit that they need help when they’re struck with this.

In his new DVD, “PTSD & Veterans,” Frank actually calls a PTSD diagnosis “hopeful,” because people who have PTSD alone have an excellent chance of going on to lead good lives. Coming from him, it should put a lot of people’s minds at ease. He and other therapists have been studying the disorder for at least three decades, and there are now so many techniques to pry this injury out of the psyche and deal with it directly — or indirectly — that a returning war veteran does not have to become the memory he or she fears, but instead can have control over it.

A bit about Frank Ochberg: He founded the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma; an organization called Gift From Within; the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies; PTSDinfo.org; and other organizations which work hard to end human cruelty — or at least make us all better people.

You can check out a portion of the video, or order a copy of the video here:  http://www.giftfromwithin.org/html/video13.html#13

There’s so much known about these types of injuries now. So many therapists know how to deal with PTSD, and proper treatment can make the difference between someone who is broken and someone who will become whole once again.