Much will emerge in the days to come on yesterday's soldier-on-soldier killings at Camp Liberty. The key question is how Sgt. John M. Russell, the man charged, arrived at a crisis that ended in such tragedy.
Surely the answers will include elements of combat stress and multiple tours of duty in a war zone. At this point, it is impossible to say how much those elements factored into the tragedy. I do, however, believe it is helpful now, as always, to try to understand the spectrum of combat stress and PTSD. Important point: the overwhelming majority of servicemembers who experience post-traumatic stress do not turn homicidal. And yet, as retired Command Sgt. Maj. Samuel Marvin Rhodes Sr. tells us, many do suffer.
Rhodes served 29 years in the armed forces, and has been diagnosed with PTSD. In his words:
When I returned from the war, I found myself struggling with thoughts of suicide and would often wake from dreams wherein I would replay scenes of explosions and gunfire in my mind. One day while attending a course at Fort Jackson, it all came full circle and I found myself crying continuously for about an hour, thinking about those soldiers who died in Iraq.
Read the rest of his story in his essay, Life with PTSD, on today's Military Health System blog.
Rhodes is not Sgt. Russell, and neither man is every soldier. But their experiences tell us clearly, this is an issue we cannot afford to ignore.
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