Austin Jenkins
05/03/2011 From KUOW.ORG
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TRANSCRIPT

NEAR JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. – Here’s a soldier’s tale. Bill Surwillo deploys to Afghanistan. Nearly a quarter of his platoon is killed. He comes home with PTSD. He turns to marijuana and spice – a synthetic version of the drug – to relax. The Army kicks him out and takes away his GI Bill. Is this fair?

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I meet Bill Surwillo at a noisy café just outside the gates of Joint Base Lewis-McChord. His car is packed and he’s ready to head home to Wisconsin. He’s been kicked out of the Army for drug use one day shy of his official end of service date – and he’s bitter.

Bill Surwillo: “I gave my life to that unit for the past four years.”

Surwillo is especially upset the Army took away his college benefits. He wanted go to trade school to become a plumber or welder.

Sitting next to him in the café booth is his friend and fellow battle buddy, Nick White. Over the din, they describe the chaos in both their lives since they returned home.

That leads them to war stories from what they call their “gnarly” deployment to Afghanistan.

Surwillo tells me about one of the many roadside bombs that maimed and killed his friends and fellow soldiers.

Bill Surwillo: “We were driving down a road on a resupply mission and our 2-1 vehicle hits an IED. Saw the mushroom cloud. Stryker go up.”

Two soldiers were killed in that incident.

One year later to the day, Surwillo and White decided to hit the bars to commemorate the anniversary of their friends’ deaths. The evening ended with Nick White in jail for pulling a gun on a bar patron.

Here’s his profanity-laced description of what happened.

Nick White: “Somehow I ended up with a f——- 45 cocked, back f—— ready to f—— go in this dude’s face just I don’t know why and that’s when these guys came around oh s—, Nick’s about to f—— grease this dude.”

If White was itchy when he got home from Afghanistan, Surwillo was subdued. He started seeing a counselor, told her about picking up the body parts of dead comrades.

And then there were the deaths back home in Wisconsin. He lost his father that year and then two close friends in a car accident.

“Everbody died in 2009,” he says.

Surwillo’s counselor – in her notes – wrote that he met the criteria for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD. But Surwillo says he wasn’t prescribed any medications for his flashbacks and other symptoms.

Sitting in the café, he says he found something else that helped him cope.

Bill Surwillo: “Smoked a little bit of spice to relax on the weekend. Whatever, that was it.”

Spice is a chemical-laced herb that looks like marijuana. It’s illegal in Washington and the military forbids it.

One day last December, Surwillo and a friend tried to bring some spice onto base. They were stopped at the gate. He tells me what happened next.

Bill Surwillo: “They said the car smelled like weed smoke or something like that and so that gave them probable cause to search us so they searched us and found it. Arrested us, put us in cuffs, took us to jail.”

Then a drug test came back positive for marijuana. His battalion commander ordered him discharged under honorable circumstances. Honorable, not dishonorable, but it would still cost him his college benefits.

Bridget Cantrell: “This is a very big deal.”

Dr. Bridget Cantrell, of Bellingham, Washington, is an expert on soldiers and PTSD. She believes Surwillo’s commanders should have gotten him help instead of booting him from the Army.

Bridget Cantrell: “To lose your objective, to lose your purpose, your goals, your goals are cut short because you made a mistake.”

Officials at Joint Base Lewis-McChord say they can’t comment on individual cases. Nor would they provide statistics on the number of soldiers discharged for drugs.

But Army-wide that number was more than 3,000 last year – a 54 percent increase compared to five years ago.

Dr. Les McFarling heads the Army’s substance abuse program. He says combat vets are subject to the same zero-tolerance drug policy as soldiers just out of boot camp.

Les McFarling: “We don’t a policy that says if you have PTSD you get a pass.”

But he adds commanders can consider those factors when deciding how to handle a soldier who’s been caught using drugs.

Les McFarling: “We place a lot of trust in a commander’s ability to make discretionary decisions such as this.”

Bill Surwillo admits he messed up. But he doesn’t think he got a fair shake. He notes his first three years in the Army were unblemished. He has an Army good conduct medal to prove it.

And remember his battle buddy Nick White – the one who pulled the gun outside of a bar? When we spoke at the café, White said the Army was giving him a medical discharge with benefits because of his PTSD.

In a follow up interview by phone, Surwillo said he sees a double standard.

Bill Surwillo: “Don’t get me wrong. He’s still my best friend. I can’t hold that against him, but I didn’t hurt anybody. I didn’t cost anybody any money. I didn’t vandalize anything. I didn’t steal anything.”

Now with no money for college, Surwillo recently took a job pumping gas for eight bucks an hour.

Bill Surwillo: “I’m not rich. I can’t afford to pay for my own college. That was one of the main reasons I joined the military. And now I’m probably going to be stuck at a dead-end job working at a gas station for the rest of my life.”

Surwillo can appeal his discharge. But a military defense attorney I consulted says those are tough cases to win.

Copyright 2011 Northwest News Network

Thank you for your service and for bringing these challenges into the awareness of the the general public. You are all an inspiration!!!

Dr. Bridget Cantrell travels the world helping treat troops, families

By Tyler Hemstreet on September 9, 2010

Though she’s successfully helped hundreds of veterans overcome their struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder over the course of her long career, Dr. Bridget Cantrell still cherishes the moments when patients share their testimony with her.

“It’s a really powerful experience,” said Cantrell, who runs a private practice in Bellingham and is one of a small number of specially selected and trained mental health providers for the Washington State Department of Veterans Affairs PTSD Program.

And it’s those experiences that help keep Cantrell helping soldiers and their family members work through struggles with PTSD. She provides mental health services to active duty from all branches of the military, reservists and National Guard troops and their families. The work focuses on treating military personnel who have experienced combat exposure or trauma, family deployment stress and readjustment issues after coming home.

“It’s extremely valuable to make sure the other members of the family (besides the servicemember) also deal with their issues,” said Cantrell, who is scheduled to speak at a symposium at Madigan Army Medical Center in November.

Due to the stress that comes with their spouse’s deployment, wives are showing up in huge numbers to mental health clinics seeking treatment to deal with depression and substance abuse problems, she said.

And that can often throw the entire household into a situation that isn’t conducive to welcoming home their spouse from a stressful deployment.

“That’s going to exacerbate their (PTSD) symptoms,” Cantrell said.

Cantrell, who received the Didi Hirsch Foundation Leadership Award for Erasing the Stigma of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in 2008, is in favor of as many forms of treatment servicemembers can possibly receive. That can be through a group setting or private sessions.

“The group sessions and workshops are very interactive – they’re talking about their issues and hearing from everybody else,” Cantrell said. “The more we bring PTSD out into the open the more people are going to realize they’re not alone. They learn to normalize their situation.”

The group setting has a tendency to lighten things up a bit.

“They can tell stories and laugh about things,” she said. “Humor is huge thing that helps them deal.”

Cantrell has also written four books (her newest book, “Souls under Siege: The Affects of Multiple Troop Deployments – and How to Weather the Storm,” helps readers find ways to support and tend to those living under the pressures of multiple deployments) that she routinely hands out to patients. She’s also the president and CEO of Hearts Toward Home International, a charitable nonprofit organization dedicated to the recovery and reintegration of trauma survivors. When she’s not seeing patients or overseeing her charity, Cantrell travels the world hosting workshops for military units and family members.

“I read a lot, talk to a lot of military leaders and really immerse myself in the military culture,” she said. “I know the pulse of what’s going on.”

And she sees the military going in the right direction when it comes to dealing with another problem plaguing servicemembers returning from deployments: suicides.

“It’s about helping leaders interpreting the warning signs – perception is everything,” she said. “Those leaders are the ones that care deeply and encourage soldiers to get help.”

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For veterans and others struggling with addiction or depression, a winding down of hostilities in Iraq could be just the beginning of an effort to tamp down demons unearthed by war.

Images of U.S. tanks rolling through Baghdad and toppled statues of Saddam Hussein could ease anxiety, but many people won’t easily be able to shake off visions of bombs and bloodshed, say mental health experts.

The war in Iraq has caused many veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder to enter a hypervigilant state of watch, said Bridget Cantrell, a Bellingham mental health counselor who treats veterans with PTSD and their families.

“They’re glued to the TV. They’re wanting to kind of hunker down and wait to see what happens,” said Cantrell, noting some of her patients are stockpiling food and ammunition in anticipation of a conflict closer to home.

“They’re wondering, ‘Is there something lurking that hasn’t occurred?’ ” she said. “It’s like the calm before the storm.”

Vietnam War veterans especially are inclined to be skeptical, Cantrell said. A prolonged conflict, dissension at home and the lack of a successful resolution in Vietnam have left many veterans of that war suspicious of the government’s intentions.

“They’re still apprehensive and saddened by all this,” said Cantrell.

To combat war-related despair, Cantrell has a box in her office where patients can donate lip balm, videos, chocolate bars and other items for the Red Cross to distribute to American troops in Iraq. She’s also passing out lists of Web sites for patients to contact the troops.

“This is a healing thing for my veterans,” she said.

Others who treat veterans with PTSD say their patients are also experiencing intensified symptoms, including nightmares, difficulty sleeping, excessive attention to war news, irritability and unwanted memories.

At the Veterans Administration Puget Sound Health Care System, which provides inpatient and outpatient medical services for veterans throughout the area, officials say they’ve seen an increase in PTSD symptoms since the war started.

“It’s not true that it’s just business as usual,” said Miles McFall, director of PTSD treatment programs at the VA.

And veterans aren’t the only ones in pain.

Callers to King County’s mental health crisis hot line are reporting more acute stress- and depression-related symptoms, including thoughts of suicide, severe panic attacks and domestic violence.

The perpetual threat of terrorist retaliation will continue to fuel high levels of anxiety, said Kathleen Southwick, executive director of the Crisis Clinic, which operates a 24-hour mental health crisis hot line for King County.

“In many ways, that’s more real,” said Southwick. “The war is over there.”

Teenagers and adults with drug and alcohol addictions are also relapsing at higher rates than usual since the war began, said Ramona Graham, substance abuse program manager at the Center for Human Services in Shoreline.

Many of the teens Graham’s agency treats say they feel hopeless in the face of continued warnings of terrorism and the prospect of U.S.-led wars in other countries.

“They’re saying, ‘Why should I even try to stay clean and sober? We might be blown up,’ ” said Graham.

Rick Hartwig, a Vietnam veteran who repaired engines on river patrol boats for the Navy, was diagnosed with PTSD in the early 1980s. Cotton candy reminds him of the smell of Napalm. Fire and smoke trigger memories of an onboard fire that killed two of his buddies.

Lately, images from Iraq have brought his war back, making sleep difficult.

Hartwig skims headlines and tries to stay away from television news. “I don’t want to get into the details of it.”

Still, Hartwig, who grew up in Bellevue and left for war right after high school, is keeping his PTSD symptoms in check these days.

Two weeks ago, he started the first full-time job he’s had in 15 years.

But memories resurrected by the war won’t soon fade.

“The war’s over, but it’s still going on inside your head,” said Hartwig, 57. “That doesn’t go away.”

TIPS AND RESOURCES

Veterans and others who experience or witness a life-threatening event can develop post-traumatic stress disorder, and traumatic events, such as the war in Iraq or terrorist attacks close to home, can trigger symptoms. While there is no cure for PTSD, symptoms can be managed with counseling and lifestyle choices, say mental health experts.

COPING:

Limit the amount of time you spend each day exposed to war- and terrorism-related information.
Take part in activities unrelated to the war, such as hobbies or exercise.
Seek support from family and friends.
RESOURCES:

1-866-427-4747 or 461-3222 from the Seattle area. A 24-hour hot line to report mental-health crises in King County.
crisisclinic.org is a Web site offering tips for recognizing and coping with war-related stress.
www.dva.wa.gov is the Washington State Department of Veterans Affairs Web site, which provides an explanation of PTSD and a list of counselors available around the state. Or call 1-360-586-1076.
Seattle Vet Center is a program of the Federal Veterans Administration that offers group and individual counseling for combat veterans. For information, call 206-553-2706.
P-I reporter Julie Davidow can be reached at 206-448-8180 or juliedavidow@seattlepi.com

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from OPB News
Austin Jenkins | September 28, 2010 | Tacoma, WA

They went to war, watched their buddies die and feel lucky to have made it out alive. But when soldiers come home, they sometimes feel the need to replace the adrenaline rush of battle.

Some turn to fast cars, faster motorcycles, thrill-seeking sports or other risky behaviors.  Austin Jenkins has the latest installment in his year-long series following the hard-hit 5th Stryker Brigade as it transitions home.

Specialist Ryan Eddy is still reeling from his year at war. He’s only 21-years old. But he’s seen hell.

Ryan Eddy: “It definitely was hell.”

Eddy was a member of the hardest hit unit in the 5th Stryker Brigade — the 117. Twenty-two soldiers killed. He personally lost 13 friends. Three of them died on a single day.

Ryan Eddy: “It was August 31st, 2009.”

The first bomb blast — in the morning — killed Spc. Tyler Walshe.

Later that same day….

Ryan Eddy: “We were on a foot patrol in the Arghandab River Valley.”

And Private First Class Jordan Brochu stepped on a pressure plate,

Ryan Eddy: “Then he shifted his weight and then that’s when I heard the pop.”

After that, says Eddy, everything went into slow motion. He was knocked out by the blast. Brochu and Specialist Jonathan Welch, Eddy’s best friend, were killed.

Ryan Eddy: “When I found out I lost my best friend Jon Welch that really hit me hard because we were just talking the night before about what we were going to do when we got out of the Army.”

Now that he’s home, Eddy says he’s anxious and jumpy. But even more than that, he’s bored.

Ryan Eddy: “Once you get shot at it’s like nothing really compares to it. It’s like, it’s like you kind of need something to replace that when you get back home.”

That might explain why Eddy took his car up to 140mph while driving to Iowa recently to see his fiancÈ. Now he’s trying to channel that need for adrenaline in a more positive way. He’s learning to skydive. He smiles as he recalls his first jump a few weeks after he got back.

Ryan Eddy: “It was only like 17 seconds, but it was a really fun 17 seconds. When we landed I really wanted to go back up again.”

Bridget Cantrell: “He’s perfectly normal.”

Bridget Cantrell is a PTSD counselor in Washington who’s worked with veterans for twenty years.

Bridget Cantrell: “They will seek out things that get that adrenaline pump going.”

Cantrell says it’s her job to help veterans re-regulate their emotions and learn to take calculated risks, not foolish ones.

Bridget Cantrell: “You know they have faced death so many times that there’s no fear of dying so they will push the envelope to the extreme to see how much they can deal with.”

Sometimes they push the envelope too far. This year, the U.S. Army published a report warning of a “increasing propensity for soldiers to engage in high risk behavior.”

The Army says that propensity led to 146 deaths of active duty soldiers last year. That includes 74 drug overdoses. Criminal offenses among soldiers are also on the rise — nearly 75,000 last year Army-wide.

It’s a Saturday night in Lakewood, Washington, a military community on the edge of Joint Base Lewis McChord. Police officer Brian Wurts takes me on patrol. He says it’s obvious to him that thousands of soldiers are back in town after being deployed for a year.

Brian Wurts: “A lot of these guys are coming home and blowing off some steam.”

Wurts says there’s been an uptick in bar fights, domestic disturbances and other calls involving soldiers — most often alcohol-fueled. But he also sees another pattern.

Brian Wurts: “I’ve noticed a little bit more of the quiet soldier who’s obviously dealing with some internal issues. You know a lot of the infantry guys that come back they’re kind of dealing with their personal demons.”

The Army says after ten years of war, its suicide rate now exceeds that of the civilian population. Last year, 160 active duty soldiers killed themselves — an average of 13 a month. Another 1700 attempted suicide.

As he patrols, Officer Wurts notices a speeding motorcycle. He whips a u-turn and turns on his lights.

Brian Wurts: “Lakewood 127 I’ll be on traffic.”

The driver is a 33-year old vet named Frank Swinson. He’s not a member of the 5th Stryker Brigade. But he says he was badly injured in Iraq and is now medically retired.

He tells me he’s got PTSD, a brain injury and he admits he’s addicted to adrenaline. That’s why he rides the motorcycle. And he does something else to clear his head.

Frank Swinson: “I sit on the overpass every night for about two or three hours and sit on the other side of the guardrail like this, just to think because without that adrenaline I can’t think, I can’t think straight.”

Swinson admits he’s teetering.

Frank Swinson: “I will [be] the first one to say I don’t want to become a casualty at home. I don’t want to commit suicide. I don’t want to hurt myself, I don’t want to do all those things. But I have so much guilt and horrible things that I saw over there.”

As for the 5th Stryker Brigade, just back from Afghanistan, there has already been one high profile death. Last month an AWOL soldier from that Brigade was spotted in uniform wielding a gun in downtown Salt Lake City. He was killed in a shootout with police.

Locked in the bathroom of the house he shared with his wife, Operation Iraqi Freedom veteran Evan Knappenberger knew what was coming next.It wasn’t the first time he had wanted it, but with any luck, it would be the last. All he wanted was an end; an end to the pain and confusion, the dreams and nightmares—an end to his young life. He heard his wife, Marie, outside the door. She had called the cops, who promised her they would take him to jail for the night: for his own good.

With their guns drawn, they approached Knappenberger.

“They came at me like I was their worst enemy—like I was an insurgent,” Knappenberger says. “They threw me to the ground in my own home.”

When he regained his awareness, hours later, he was standing naked in a padded room at the jail.

It was just another episode in the long line of traumatic episodes Knappenberger has experienced since he became a soldier more than seven years ago. Knappenberger likens it to drowning.

“By the time you fall in, it’s all you can do to just breathe,” he says. “From the day I joined the Army until today, that’s how I’ve felt.”

Knappenberger suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). PTSD is an anxiety disorder that some people develop after seeing or living through a dangerous event. For our troops, it can happen at anytime during or after their time in the military. Dr. Bridget Cantrell, who is an expert on treating veterans with PTSD and is based out of Fairhaven, describes it as a response to something that’s outside the realm of normal experience.

Symptoms vary by individual, but along with the mental symptoms of PTSD—sleeplessness, flashbacks, profound grief, increased startle reaction, and relationship problems, to name a few—Cantrell says there are physical signs of PTSD. Cortisol, a hormone that increases blood pressure and blood-sugar levels as a response to stress or anxiety, is more responsive to external triggers, making people who have PTSD more on edge.

Cantrell says this means if a veteran with PTSD and a civilian without it hear a car backfire, cortisol levels in both will instantly spike. For the civilian, the levels will quickly drop once the threat of danger has subsided. But for the veteran, the cortisol levels will stay elevated for a longer period of time, maybe even days.

Knappenberger’s not alone. It’s estimated that 300,000—more than 35 percent—of his fellow Operation Iraqi Freedom veterans will suffer from PTSD. That number doesn’t include troops from the war in Afghanistan.

With the amount of troops returning home, Veterans’ care is going to be an increasing issue around the country. According to the Whatcom County Veterans Coalition, there are 667,000 veterans in the state of Washington—16,000 in Whatcom County. And with more troops returning and trying to take advantage of the GI bill, those numbers may increase.

PTSD is not a recent development; troops from every war experience combat stress–related issues. But veterans of WWII weren’t willing to talk about the inner strife they were feeling, Cantrell says. It wasn’t until troops returned from Vietnam and demanded an explanation for the new emotions they were feeling that PTSD began sneaking into the spotlight.

Many WWII veterans viewed the younger warriors as “whiners” and “complainers,” Cantrell says.

“Our poor Vietnam veterans came home to a society that ostracized them, rejected them, judged them and were very disrespectful,” Cantrell says. “We cannot afford to repeat that.”

Bellingham resident James Gillies knows this firsthand. The Canadian-born, Vietnam veteran says not only were he and his comrades shunned by older veterans, they were prohibited from their groups, like the American Legion. And civilians didn’t regard them very highly either.

“Because we ‘lost’ the war we were losers,” Gillies says. “We were ‘mad-dog killers’.”

Gillies says his adjustment back into society wasn’t exactly smooth. And although he hadn’t been diagnosed with PTSD yet, he knew something was different. He was in and out of jail (where he, like Knappenberger, noticed a high population of veterans), had drug problems, tried to commit suicide, went from job to job, slept outdoors, had extreme anger issues, and was married five times.

“I only slept two hours a day for 38 years,” he says. “That should have been a clue.”

Gillies recalls one Christmas where he took his two young children (with his fifth and current wife, Barbara) to pick out a Christmas tree. He went to a payphone to call Barbara and tell her they had picked a different tree than the couple had originally decided on. Two men were at the pay phone and wouldn’t let Gillies use it. So with his two children watching from the car, he got into a 20-minute fist fight.

Once, while crossing the street with his young son Blakely, a man didn’t stop properly at a crosswalk. So Gillies leapt onto the roof of his car, pulled him out of it, and stuck his nose to the ground asking if he knew what a crosswalk was.

“I started feeling like a super hero, or the Lone Ranger, but without any qualifications,” Gillies says.

Finally in 1995, after years of jumping through hoops with the VA hospitals (he had to prove over and over again that he had actually served in Vietnam), Gillies got a diagnosis of PTSD, Attention Defecit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and depression. Since then, he’s been able to get the medical help he’s needed. But for others, like Knappenberger, medical care is hard to get. Knappenberger says he once tried to check himself into the VA hospital in Seattle because of suicidal thoughts, but was told there was only one bed available in the Pacific Northwest: in Portland. And he would have to drive himself.

Severe road-rage and PTSD often go hand in hand Cantrell says.  In war situations it is vital for troops to be completely aware of their surroundings, especially while driving, to prevent surprise attacks that could result in death. Inattentive drivers, who talk on their cell phones or do their make-up on highways here at home, cause tremendous amounts of stress. As a result, many veterans don’t want to have to drive 75 to 100 miles to the closest Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital to get their medication or to a short visit with a therapist.

Even at the VA there are a lot of difficulties that stand in the way of Veterans and their treatment. Paperwork often gets lost or delayed, meaning it takes longer for veterans to get the help they need. Veterans often deal with long waits and sometimes, inadequate care professionals.

Perhaps the biggest obstacle veterans, and active-duty troops have to overcome with PTSD is the stigma that is associated with it. Military personnel are viewed as being the best of the best, the toughest of the tough, and the bravest of the brave. Cantrell says that leaves many of them wondering, “I made it through Iraq (or Vietnam), why can’t I make it through this?”

“I’ve had so many people tell me, ‘I wish I had an arm missing, then people could see I have pain.’,” Cantrell says.

Cantrell says it is not uncommon for troops dealing with PTSD to feel as if they are letting down their unit, their comrades, and their leaders. Many are afraid of losing their security status. Having PTSD makes many feel weak, and their weakness makes the whole unit weak. Weakness is not something a unit can afford in the military when the difference between life and death can happen in a moment of weakness.

That’s why Cantrell says she tries to normalize the situation for troops when she meets them. Cantrell says she frequently asks units that she is sent to talk to how many of them are feeling angrier, more lost, or more stressed than they were before they were deployed. She frequently sees all of the troops raise their hands. This shows the warrior that he or she is not alone in what they are feeling. These feelings, symptoms of PTSD, are common, and the person is not weak or crazy for feeling them.

“They can get through this,” Cantrell says. “But they have to have a sanctuary around them to do this.”

Cantrell says this is where the community can play an active and important part. She says it’s important for family, friends, teachers, co-workers—anyone who has involvement with veterans—to keep an eye out for things that might make veterans uncomfortable. Things like crowds at a mall or marketplace, excessively screaming children, or backfiring vehicles.

“We need to take responsibility as citizens to notice these things, help veterans be as successful as possible,” Cantrell says.

Even simple things, like making them a meal, mowing a lawn, or baby sitting, can help make the life of a returning veteran and their family easier, she says.

One way to make an immeasurable impact on the life of a soldier, Cantrell says, is to participate in one of the many “adopt-a-troop” organizations that can be found on the internet. By sending care packages and even little things like cards, citizens can make a warrior feel his or her service is appreciated.

“We need to really come together as a community,” Cantrell says. “Because community is where healing takes place.”

For Gillies, the best way he can help is summed up by the motto of the Vietnam Veterans of America: “To never let this happen to another soldier again.”

“We’re trying to make sure they don’t suffer the same slings and arrows that the Vietnam veterans did,” Gillies says. “It’s a matter of veterans being proactive and not giving up.”

These days, Gillies sleeps four hours a day—in bed with his wife. He hosts trivia night at Uisce’s pub downtown, almost every week. He writes for What’s Up! Magazine, and the Cascadia Weekly. Recently, he won the Howard Harris Lifetime Peacemaker Award from the Whatcom Peace and Justice Center for the work he has done to improve the lives and care of veterans.

“Personally, I’ve made my peace with it. I’m okay,” he says. “It’s inspired me to be helpful. When all is said and done, I’m a better person for it.”

Although PTSD is classified as a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act, Cantrell says it’s important for warriors to not lose hope; they can get through it.

Knappenberger is on his way. In December, he graduated from Whatcom Community College with a transfer degree, meaning he has all of his basic college requirements completed. He hopes to go to WWU and major in math, when funds allow. They may seem like small steps, but they’re steps in the right direction.

Like Gillies, Knappenberger plans to stay involved in veterans’ issues and hopes to be helpful to others like him.

“If I can stop somebody else from having the same, meaningless trauma, maybe that will do some good in the universe,” he says.

It took at least 30 years for Vietnam veterans to get the help they needed and deserved. Here’s hoping that our Iraq and Afghanistan veterans don’t have to wait that long.

As seen in Bellingham Alive! 2/10

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