At Memorial Day: Another Iraq Vet, With PTSD, Dies

On Memorial Day weekend, yet another American family is mourning the death of son who survived the war in Iraq -- only to fall victim at home from post traumatic shock disorder.

The family lives in Corpus Christi, Texas, and the Marine was Chad Oligschlaeger, age 21, who died this week at the Twenty Nine Palms base in California.

While the cause of his death is still being investigated, family members say he was taking eight different types of medications to deal with post-traumatic stress disorder after serving two tours in Iraq.

I've been chronicling these stories for nearly five years, and the surge in such reports in recent weeks is truly troubling.

Byron Smith, Oligschlaeger's uncle, told a local TV outlet, "the first tour he came back and he asked for help, and they sent him back over there. I guess that was their idea of help. He did what a marine does -- he went over there."

His father, Eric, said, "The second tour ... I don't think he was ready to go back. I think he was fighting it. I think he was afraid to go back."

"We sent these kids over there, we're putting them through things that we'll never see in our lifetimes. Things we see in the movies that are not real, it's real to them," said Christine Judan, a family friend of the Oligschlaegers.

Also reported yesterday: a West Virginia paper has found four local cases of Iraq vets who died in their sleep after taking a combination of drugs prescribed for PTSD. More on this soon.
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Greg Mitchell's new book has several chapters on Iraq vet suicide. It is So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits -- and the President -- Failed on Iraq. It features a preface by Bruce Springsteen and a foreword by Joe Galloway.

Comments

[bmermaid]

I feel compelled on Memorial Day to say this-

SAYING we support our troops is not the same as actually SUPPORTING OUR TROOPS.

Our Veterans of the current 2 wars in Afghanistan & Iraq, have been asked to sacrifice as much and more as any of our United States Service Men & Women have ever been asked. They are serving 3 & 4 tours, many willingly, without any complaint.

They RICHLY deserve not only our respect & appreciation, our honor and thanks, but also DECENT care for their war injuries, and the opportunities for education that United States Military Service has traditionally been given.

Not only do we owe this to them for their sacrifices, we owe it to their families.

Don't just say you support our troops. That's too easy. Support fair & decent benefits.

Write to your congressmen. Educate yourself and do what you can. They deserve it.

[lewes17266]

Do our leaders expect our sons to cease being flesh and blood when they become soldiers?

They need support and care.

This is too sad.

[YankeeCanuck]

Where is our sense of outrage?

[BillKen]

How much psychic blood do we have to shed before someone does something. This young Marine killed himself because his command did not see the light and sent him to his death by refusing to think of his best interests instead of the interests and needs of the Corps. I have been fighting PTSD for over thirty years and still am not sure that I won't end up eating my gun. My heart goes out to his family and the families of all those who have chosen to exit because they can't take the crap anymore. Semper Fi

[Yohomegirl]

Another body at the feet of Bush, with McCain begging for a footnote in this Marines misery.

[CaseyBabes]

Typical demorat response. McCain's reasons were based upon building retention, something he is highly qualified to understand. The USA needs more staying in as Americans are generally not supportive of compulsary service.

[dshwa]

Perhaps the cure to retention is for our political leadership to be more responsible about the way we use our volunteer army?

McCains reasoning is faulty. His solution to retention is to deny veterans better benefits so they won't leave. Obviously he doesn't think these better benefits will draw in more recruits, which is probably true. So his solution is to punish those who have served by denying them the rewards they deserve so they won't leave. That's a pretty rotten way to treat his fellow vets.

[zizyphus]

Two issues: one is the extended tours of duty which are inhumane.

The second is the drugs they are prescribing for these vets. What I see is the big drug companies downplaying the side effects of the anti-depressants, some of which are almost identical chemically to opiates, with even worse withdrawals. Adding them to other drugs in various combinations is a chemical russian roulette in my opinion.

We see more and more youngsters on anti-depressants killing themselves, and increasingly taking others with them.

If the anti-depressants that are the most effective for primary symptoms of depression are the ones molecularly most similar to opiates, it makes sense to eliminate all these "middle men" and just give people balls of opium to smoke.

The old fashioned grandma's poppyseed tea remedy would be a better solution for some of the trauma our poor soldiers are recovering from. They need all the help they can get.

[lgillooly]

This is a National disgrace. It should be on all media every day until we force this Administration to help our soldiers. I am sick of people waving the flag and blind Patriotism when this Country should be ashamed of how we are treating our soldiers. The MSM spends weeks on Rev. Wright comments and nothing on this??? What is wrong with this picture?

[tinarm]

Yes, and now we have a person running for president in John McCain who says we can't give scolarships to our soldiers because they may leave. No, No, he says, " We have to have grunts who can go back tour after tour, that way there can be more PTSD, more limbs, and families torn apart!" Man what a great hero he is. His and Bush's motto, "Will send you to die and then will bring you home so you can commit sucide." Great leaders they both are, huh.