Word: mans
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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During World War II, U.S. Army field commanders discovered that they were losing more troops to combat stress than to the enemy. One man in ten was knocked out of action by battle-induced mental disorder; in 1943, more men were discharged because of psychiatric reasons than were inducted. Moreover, such casualties were usually eliminated permanently from the war; they were shipped home and discharged. Today in Viet Nam, the psychiatric casualty rate is down to one man in 100. And most of the victims rejoin their units within two days...
...reason for this dramatic reduction is a considerable improvement in the fighting man's lot. Hot meals almost daily, swift evacuation of the wounded by helicopter, regular periods of R and R (rest and recreation) far from the battle zone, steady troop rotation-all these, by contributing to the soldier's peace of mind, have helped prevent mental wounds. But the major reason for the improvement lies in psychiatry's new understanding of and approach to battle stress...
...Viet Nam, the fighting man is seldom out of reach of a psychiatrist; each combat division has its own. There are also two fully staffed mental health clinics that accept the disturbed patient in a most unmartial atmosphere. Military ceremony and the rule book are dropped at the door. Says Colonel Thomas Murray, chief Army psychiatrist in South Viet Nam: "Some of our psychiatrists are the most improbable military guys: soft, flabby, unexercised." In this deliberately demilitarized ambience, the soldier's recovery begins...
...please the patient," - says Murray. "At home, the psychiatrist's orientation is toward kindness, consideration, tender loving care. Here, to be kind would be to send your patient home." The purpose of military therapy, however, is not cure but amelioration. It is to get a disabled fighting man back on the line-or, if possible, to keep him on the line...
...approved by the American Psychiatric Association. In Korea, for instance, captured American soldiers who were subjected to brainwashing showed more stubborn loyalty to their military outfit than to their own moral values or even their country. In Viet Nam, this knowledge is being applied by treating the battle-shocked man not as an individual but as part of his unit. Men like Major Joel Kaplan, 33, who heads the U.S. Army mental hygiene clinic in Nha Trang, recognize a number of stress syndromes that can tear the unit apart -and, in so doing, generate individual psychiatric casualties...