Mar 3, 2009 10:09 pm US/Mountain
Vietnam Vets Reach Out To Iraq Vets
Written for the Web by CBS4 Special Projects Producer Libby Smith
DENVER (CBS4) ―
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The group of five Vietnam vets is asking CBS4 to pay it forward, giving $1,000 to soldiers being treated for PTSD.
CBS
Some estimates say nearly 20 percent of soldiers returning from Iraq suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD). In Denver, those military men and women are getting some help from an unexpected group -- veterans from another war.
"There are four major situations I was involved in where I had to kill individuals not only with gunfire but stabbings," said Mike Tarby, a retired member of the U.S. Army who served in Vietnam for 2 years.
It has been 40 years since the Vietnam War and yet for many vets, the nightmares of their time in combat are as vivid as if the war was yesterday. Five men, all who served in Vietnam, are paying it forward to vets returning from the Iraq war who suffer from PTSD.
Chuck Douglas served in Vietnam. He also spent time in the residential treatment program at Denver's Veterans Administration (VA) Hospital.
"You wanted to go back over there because it felt more comfortable. It's what you knew. You didn't want to be here because you weren't welcome home," Douglas told CBS4.
The clinic treats vets from all wars who suffer from PTSD. But Douglas says vets need to support one another during the treatment program and more importantly, outside the program.
"The military teaches you how to be a very good soldier, what they don't teach you is how to come home and be a good vet," he explained.
Another Vietnam vet talks about meeting the current soldiers being treated for PTSD.
"When you see patients in here today, does your heart just break for them?" Tony Martinez, a former U.S. Army demolition specialist, was asked.
"Yes, it does. I treat all of them as though they're my family," Martinez replied.
Martinez recalls trying to choke his wife one night during a nightmare.
"I thought it was a Vietnamese and I was choking her hand, her arm," he told CBS4.
The program at the VA Hospital has helped, but not erased, his symptoms of PTSD.
Now the group of five Vietnam vets is asking CBS4 to pay it forward, giving $1,000 to soldiers being treated for PTSD. The money will buy books on mental health for the soldier to refer to during and after their treatment. The men from the Vietnam war era hope that 40 years from now the current soldiers won't be experiencing the nightmares and the fears that continue to haunt them today.
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