Many people that want to attack todays soldiers claim that the WWII soldiers didnt get PTSD, in spite of the infamous incident with Patton and the soldier that did.
Whell, heres what I find interesting. I come from a split family. I had 4 grandfathers, 3 who served in WWII, (and one who stayed in long enough to see Korea) and 2 dads that served in 'Nam. After I got home from my first war deployment, The grandpa who drove LSTs landing Marines for Guadal Canal and Iwo Jima was the first to visit and tell me if I didnt want to talk to the men in the family, I needed to find someone to talk to. He knew the demons of war, and only talking would lay them to rest. Next was the Grandpa who landed on Oklahoma Beach. Then My step-dad, who served with the 101st. Finally my dad, who was an SP in Soul, and saw most of the "baby bombs" and helped clean up the messes.
My family understood well coming back changed, growing a dark side, "self-medicating" and becoming an alcoholic. They had also learned from experience that each man had to learn for himself that talking your demons out is the only way to lay them to rest, and it ony works when you're finally ready to face them. But they let me know that I had demons, even if I didnt realize it yet, and that facing them sooner, rather than later, would hurt less and do less damage over time.
We may not have had psychology degrees and 4 syllable words or fancy doctor terms, or any of that. But we still knew. And just because we didnt tell the neighbors or the pastor doesnt mean we didnt tel each other. Dad looked out for son and grandson, and so on.
