Way to go, Navy!
My Navy pride is swelling again. And why not? With zero room for error and the world watching, three Navy snipers took out the bad guys and prompted the rescue of Capt. Richard Phillips of the U.S. flagged Maersk Alabama.
Five days of swashbuckling drama on the Indian Ocean’s high seas ended in a matter of seconds. Now that’s what I call gun control.
So what will this mean for pirates and their potential loot?
Piracy is too lucrative and their targets too many to simply go away. Plus, merchant ships too often just pay the ransom when their cargo and crew are captured.
Or they enter a standoff. Dozens of seafarers of various nationalities are
Richard Phillips, rescued captain of the Maersk Alabama, shakes hands with Lt. Cmdr David Fowler, commanding officer of the USS Bainbridge, the Navy destoryer from where three Navy SEAL snipers nixed three pirates holding Philliips h9stage in a nearby lifeboat.(Photo courtesy of the U.S. Navy)
still being held hostage by pirates in lawless Somalia as “negotiations” continue.
Piracy is far more perplexing - and the oceans too vast - for the United States to battle this problem alone. With this long-simmering issue now at a peak, it might be time to turn up the volume on some international chat.
For now, however, we can revel in our Navy and its three sharpshooters, who come from the elite SEAL team. Their specialized training and penchant for danger make them a breed unto themselves.
It ain’t easy doing sit-ups with telephone poles on SEAL Beach at Naval Amphibious Base Coronado, where they train across the bay from San Diego. Or staying under water in full combat gear. As the saying goes: the only easy day was yesterday.
Killing those three pirates ina volatile standoff may spark retaliation toward American-flagged ships in the future – or it may have the opposite effect.
“Don’t mess with those Americans and their warships – they aim to kill.”
Regardless, our Navy rocked the world yesterday. Now, how cool is that?
High Drama on the High Seas
Piracy on the high seas: It’s dramatic, suspenseful and dangerous — and it’s a foe the U.S. Navy and international naval forces have been battling for as long as ships have crossed the ocean.
Somali pirates trawling for treasure have captured at least a half-dozen cargo vessels in the last week alone.
The reason the ever-growing, low-tech problem of piracy now dominates U.S. headlines is only because of the latest capture April 8, that of an American cargo vessel Maersk Alabama and its captain-turned-hostage, Richard Phillips.
Truth is, the pirates are now holding 54 captives for ransom, in addition to Phillips.
Enter the U.S. Navy, which has prioritized anti-piracy efforts in a big way in recent years. Why? Because just as the demand has increased for products from overseas, including oil, so has the potential for ransom from commercial shipping companies, many of which are willing to pay pirates rather than fight or risk harm to their loot or crews.
Look, the world is seven-tenths water. There’s no way to patrol millions of square miles of seas simultaneously. Some of the world’s major shipping channels travel through five relatively tiny “choke points” or narrow passages that can’t be avoided to get from there to here.
Pirates know where to lay in waiting for some vulnerable, unarmed vessel with a sparse crew to pass through — and then cha-ching. It’s payday.
In January, the U.S. Navy established Task Force 151, a multinational coalition of naval forces set up to combat piracy.
Individual vessels also take on pirates, and sometimes win. Tactics to ward off would-be pirates have included spraying them with fire hoses and stretching barbed wire along the sides of ships to prevent pirates from boarding.
Pirates, on the other hand, are savvy operators and the most recent outcome involving Captain Phillips is still to be determined.
Having that talk — again
As the Sunday morning talking heads debated whether we’d have 80,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan by year’s end, my husband, Perry, said it again: “I want to go.”
“Why in the world do you want to go back to that crazy reality?” I asked him. “Wasn’t hearing “duck and cover” over and over on Easter last year enough?”
Last Easter, Perry, a Navy reserve intelligence officer, was stationed at FOB Shield near Sadr City, which was repeatedly pelted with small (but deadly) bombs in recognition of the Christian holiday. Geesh.
In July, his seven-month tour in Iraq ended. I know hehad hit his stride and wanted to stay longer. I was mobilized as well, for a year, but in Williamsburg, Va., not in actual combat. Now we’re both home, but it has only been in the last couple months that our lives began to feel somewhat normal again.
So why even think about going back? His reasons are always the same.
“I want to be where the action is.”
“I want to feel relevant.”
“I wasn’t ready to leave Iraq when I did.”
It’s more complicated than that. For one, Perry’s youngest son Michael graduates from high school in June, then soon heads to college. That empty nest feeling looms.
As a civilian, Perry is a partner in a law firm that is managing better than most in this tenuous economy. But turning in time sheets at the firm is no match for real-time pursuits of “bad actors” and helping the Iraqis rebuild the Iraqi court system.
Also, coming home can seem foreign for awhile. Adjusting to our abundance again is uncomfortable. So is the realization that life back home continues without you just fine. Sure, you’re missed, but you also miss out on a lot while you’re being missed.
I don’t want him to go and tell him so. Too many times I’ve heard of warriors returning home safely only to get killed on their second or third tour back in the sandbox. Why tempt fate?
We change the channel to an old western movie and Afghanistan falls out of the conversation for the time being. My thoughts drift to paint swatches for the bedroom – a welcome bit of trivia, but trivial just the same. I know this conversation isn’t over yet. I just don’t know how it’ll turn out.
Volunteered or Voluntold?
More than 500 Navy reservists board a jet bound for Iraq and Kuwait to fulfill a seven-month deployment. They served a customs and cargo handling mission in 2008 with the Navy Expeditionary Logistics Support Group, based in Williamsburg, Va. All of them volunteered for the mission.
So we’re sending 21,000 more troops to Afghanistan. Does that mean another round of arm-twisting and groans to get boots on the ground? My guess is that a good portion of those troops already have their hands raised to volunteer.
Here’s why: More than a few of our warriors actually thrive on the excitement of a combat zone. Yes, they leave their families, and yes, that is hard. But I’ve been told more than once that the minute they hit the sand in some foreign land, they’ve already formed another kind of family with their comrades in arms. It’s tight, it’s important, they have a purpose bigger than all of them together.
The pay ain’t so bad, either, since everything else is taken care of — clothes, bullets, grub , bedroll, transportation, haircuts — you get the idea.
Top that off with tax-free income, hazardous pay, great chow (the dining halls in the war zones serve a round-the-clock buffet extraordinaire, including free Baskin-Robbins ice cream).
Forget mowing the lawn or finding a babysitter or any other mundane chore. Heck, you don’t even have to decide what to wear.
Then there are those who have been to combat zones a few times. Guess what? That sort of becomes reality for them. In a weird way, i’s actually more comfortable than the trivial day-in, day-out occurrences of life back home. And there;s often a bump in status. A soldier might be a car rental salesman at home, but over there he’s actually in charge of a battalion.
Another thing: I hate to say it, but some raise their hands because their personal lives are a wreck. Or, they don’t have a job. Or they relish the immediate ”hero” status that comes with being deployed.
No doubt it’s appealing to be a part of something bigger than yourself. Duty, honor, country – they do mean something
But the reasons some are so willing to go aren’t always that simple.
Get a job
You just don’t know how good the job market is — that is, unless you’re leaving the military.
Job fairs are popping up in towns and cities with high military populations and recruiters are told to walk out of there with bonafide hires (sound familiar, infantry?).
So what do these military types have that most others apparently don’t?
They have skills that can’t easily be found elsewhere. The Merchant Marines can’t hire enough sailors with seagoing experience, for instance. Most airlines have traditionally found their pilots from the military ranks.
And those who leave with the golden egg can pretty much write their own ticket. Golden eggs are valid security clearances of a secret level and above. I last heard that it now takes two years to investigate a civilian before issuing a clearance. Employers don’t want to wait, nor do they want to incur the expense.
Besides skills, employers want candidates with discipline, a solid work ethic, and that magical touch called honor. Defense contractors hire ex-military because they understand the culture. Police and fire departments hire them, perhaps for their discipline and a perceived rigidity.
Last September, I attended the mandatory military “TAP” class for Navy officers and enlisted who were retiring. We had a minimum of four recruiters working the class and these guys were ready to hire.
Job fairs aren’t all brick and mortar either. Try an online job fair at wwb militaryconnection.com.
Not taking care of our own
Why are women in the military so hesitant to report sexual attacks against them?
The mechanics are there - toll-free numbers to call, plenty of lip service in mandatory GMT (general military training), a go-to advocate within each command.
But the truth is, sexual violence – and I’m talking rape, not improper touching – is often tacitly tolerated, not only by leadership, but by the victims themselves. Why?
Think about it. You’re a minority (only 15 percent of the military is female) in a culture known to “take care of its own.” When something bad happens to you, the first thought isn’t going to the local police. What happens in the military stays in the military.
And a command can get really small. Everyone knows everyone – sometimes too well. Betraying that ”one team, one fight” mentality gets nasty. And lonely. Shipmates resent you for turning on one of your own, or for “ruining” the career of a “good” sailor or soldier or airman or whatever.
And yet, a report released by the Pentagon this week shows an increase in sexual violence reports from women in combat zones and elsewhere.
So are women spilling the ugly truth more often or are some ”heroes” among us getting bolder? You tell me.
Getting a bit pudgy, are you?
Never thought I’d miss those zero-dark-thirty Navy PRT sessions in the gym. You know, flashing a fake grin at the admiral who is sweating it out on the elliptical (does she ever miss a day?). Trying to outshine a chief on the mat with my snazzy sit-up regimen.
Nope, I don’t ever recall enjoying the 0500 drive to the torture chamber or the gossipy showers stalls.
But here I am, back home after a year of active duty recall with the Navy. Another weekend slips by without punching my card at the gym which, this time, I’m paying for in monthly dues. I shudder at how easily my excuses are working these days.
So, no more peer pressure to perform physically. No judgmental glances when I help myself to a second (or third) cookie. How I longed for this day — and how I’m paying for it now. For all my whining, I’ll say this about the military’s “culture of fitness” it did keep me in shape. Which makes me wonder, what if the same type of pressure was applied in the civilian workforce?
What if, at the end of a staff meeting, our boss lectured us on the virtues of weightlifting? Or required us to sign in each time we showed up at the gym (as the admiral did)? Could a co-worker get away with poking fun at our too-full plate and expanding waistline at the company picnic the same way the chiefs did at Friday socials? I’m guessing not. But it would be, err, fruitful, in a way.
So next this week I’ll really get in a workout, or maybe even two. Really.
PTSD and the Purple Heart
Must an injury be seen to merit the Purple Heart?
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.
PTSD diagnosis carries hope
I want to tell you about a new film that’s of interest to me and other veterans. It’s about the unseen injuries of combat: Post-traumatic stress disorder. PTSD is not a new phenomenon, but it’s one that is being talked about more now than ever in recent memory. I know people’s eyes may glaze over, because we don’t like to talk about disorders, and especially disorders of the mind.
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.
Weekend Warriors? Not anymore.
Back when I was a lowly seaman, going to “drill” once a month in the Navy Reserves meant showing up on time, wearing the uniform sharply, standing very still at attention and saluting at the right time.
How things have changed.
Back then most of us spent our drill weekends shuffling paperwork and chatting up a shipmate or two in the halls. We tried to look important, arming ourselves with some documents or a clipboard in accordance with the orders of one lieutenant commander: “Mill about smartly when you mill about!” (He never was promoted further, by the way.)
And when the weekends were was over, it really was true — we wouldn’t see our fellow reservists until the next month, and sometimes not until the next year.
I know I spent a good chunk of my drill time shopping for my annual two-week “training” in the summer. Where should I go this year — Hawaii? Italy? France — yeah, baby!
“This isn’t a travel agency,” a lieutenant once told me. She coulda fooled me!
Then came then Persian Gulf war in 1991. That’s when a lot of reservists like me had to make the decision about whether the college money was worth the possibility of going to war.
Some bailed. In fact, many bailed.
I had told myself that I would stay in the reserves until it was no longer fun, and back then, it still was.
But by the time the peacekeeping efforts in Bosnia came along, and then the debacle in Somalia, another factor really built up our workload — the Internet. We no longer talked just once a month but pretty much every week — sometimes most nights and weekends — getting work done and creating more work.
The military also started taking physical exercise far more seriously (and still does). They really got pickier on who they brought in, and in a matter of a few years, they were a lot fewer Deadwood Joes with zero motivation and a lot more college grads with buns of steel — even among the enlisted ranks.
Still, we hadn’t yet gained what we reservists wanted most — the respect of the active duty. We still didn’t work directly with them and they still looked at us as a bunch of yahoos who played with their guns and equipment every other weekend — and left crumbs on their desks.
Boy have times changed.
This time around more reservists were initially called to war than active duty. There was no whining, no grousing. We reservists took the motto “Be Ready” seriously. We got ready. Congress gave us money for training, equipment, and the time to gain experience with real-time exercises that closely mimicked the real deal.
It was quite a change from waving passengers through at Fleet Week in New York, though that was fun!
And the active duty watched and begrudgingly had to acknowledge that not only were we pretty sharp on the draw, we looked pretty good in uniform, too.
We kept pace with them, ever so aware of a judgmental eye or two, and earned their appreciation of the skills we brought from our civilian lives.
More joint exercises led to more real-time joint war-fighting.
A couple years ago when I was serving on the Talisman Saber exercise in Rockhampton, Australia, a whole bunch of us were working in the same tent camp, surrounded by environmentalists protesting. Toward the end of this, the largest biennial joint exercise in the Pacific, we traded stories with the Aussies and with our own about how our missions were going, what challenges we had, and how many protesters we’d dealt with that day.
Only toward the end of the exercise — if at all — was the question asked: Are you a reservist? And when we told them we were, they exclained, “Hey mate! Your’re kidding, right — never would’ve guessed!”
In other words, status was last thing on their minds. We’d finally become one big fighting team, not only as U.S. troops — reservists and active duty alike — but allies working in tandem.
As the wars continue in Iraq and Afghanistan, we hope in this respect the U.S. military and its allies will be recognized simply as one mean fighting team. And darn proud.
To the fellow reservists out there, tell me how it’s going for you — are you having the same kinds of experiences with the active duty? Are you feeling “ready and fully integrated,” as the Navy likes to say? Tell us your experiences, for better or worse.
