It’s about damn time. CNN spoke with two one-stars who are doing their part to destigmatize this oh-so-natural consequence of, you know, war and stuff:
Brig. General Gary S. Patton and Gen. Carter Ham have both sought counseling for the emotional trauma of their time in the Iraq war. “One of our soldiers in that unit, Spec. Robert Unruh, took a gunshot wound to the torso, I was involved in medevacing him off the battlefield. And in a short period of time, he died before my eyes,” Patton told CNN in an exclusive interview. “That’s a memory [that] will stay with me the rest of my life.” Ham was the commander in Mosul when a suicide bomber blew up a mess tent. Twenty-two people died.
As bad as all the death and destruction is, imagine being the general whose day-to-day decisions put the rank and file in harm’s way.
The interview’s a start, but until these generals do a whole lot more to send the message down the chain of command that mental health is as important as physical health, we’re going to keep seeing our soldiers come back unsalvageable.
