Epidemic Continues: Iraq Vet with PTSD Kills Self, Brother

The epidemic of suicides among veterans of the Iraq war with PTSD has become so common that I sat down to write about two news ones today and end up writing about an even more recent, and shocking, one. It involves a decorated vet who wrote about his PTSD for the Marine Corps Gazette-- and this week killed himself and his brother after a long police chase in Arizona.

Police have discovered no motive for the killings, nor why the brothers earlier in the week may have planned to commit suicide by driving into the Grand Canyon -- Thelma and Louise style.

Staff Sgt. Travis Twiggs, 36, who enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1993 and held the combat action ribbon -- and met President Bush a few weeks ago -- wrote a lengthy article in the January issue of the Marine Corps Gazette detailing his efforts to deal with post-traumatic stress disorder. He loved his country so much he named a daughter America, The Arizona Republic reports today.

His brother was Willard J. Twiggs, age 38.

"All this violent behavior, him killing his brother, that was not my husband. If the PTSD would have been handled in a correct manner, none of this would have happened," Kellee Twiggs, the wife of Staff Sgt. Travis Twiggs, said. She said he began changing after his second tour of duty in Iraq, and worsened after he returned from his third stint there, when he lost two good friends from his platoon.

"He went and saw a physician's assistant who said that was the severest case of PTSD she'd seen in her life," Kellee Twiggs said, according to published reports. Twiggs had been absent without leave since May 5.

Travis Twiggs was given medications for mood elevation and sleeping to get him calmed down before beginning therapy. But again he was sent back to Iraq "and he was very, very different, angry, agitated, isolated and so forth," upon his return, Kellee Twiggs said, according to the Associated Press. "He was just doing crazy things."

She said her husband was treated in the psychiatric ward of Bethesda Naval Medical Center and then sent to a Veterans Affairs Department facility for four months. But she said she couldn't understand why he was not sent to a specialized PTSD clinic in New Jersey.

"They let him out. He was OK for a while and then it all started over again," she said, according to AP, adding that Travis Twiggs was with the Wounded Warrior Regiment and accompanied a group to Washington a few weeks ago where he met President Bush at the White House.

In his Marine Corps Gazette article, written after his fourth tour, he wrote: "All of my symptoms were back, and now I was in the process of destroying my family," he wrote. "My only regrets are how I let my command down after they had put so much trust in me and how I let my family down by pushing them away."

Most recently, Twiggs was assigned to the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory at Quantico, Va. Tom Ricks, The Washington Post's military reporter, notes today online that he had touted Twiggs' Marine Corps Gazette article about PTSD when it came out.

The AP describes Twiggs' final hours this way:

On Wednesday, Twiggs and his brother led law enforcement agents on a chase across more than 80 miles of Interstate 8 after speeding away from a Border Patrol checkpoint in southwestern Arizona.

After officers with the Tohono O'odham Police Department placed spike strips on the interstate, the car continued for about a mile. Police and Border Patrol agents heard two shots from the disabled car and later found both men slumped forward and dead in a vehicle they had carjacked Monday night within Grand Canyon National Park.

They are believed to have crashed their car at the canyon's edge and walked away from the scene, witnesses said, hours before the carjacking at gunpoint. Park spokeswoman Shannan Marcak said that investigators believe, based on how the car was hung up on a tree, the men may had tried to drive off the road and into the canyon.

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Greg Mitchell's new book has several chapters on the suicide issue. It is So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits -- and the President -- Fails on Iraq. It features a preface by Bruce Springsteen and a foreword by Joe Galloway.

Comments

[irishgawdess]

http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2008/05/military_va_adjustmentdisorder_051508w/
By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Friday May 16, 2008 10:24:47 EDT

"VA e-mail: Save money, do not diagnose PTSD"

"Veterans diagnosed with PTSD are eligible for health benefits and, in some cases, disability retirement pay. Adjustment disorder, on the other hand, is considered a short-term diagnosis, and does not qualify veterans for benefits, said Brandon Friedman, vice chair of VoteVets.org, one of the advocacy groups."

This is just one more way the government is attempting to screw our vets. It doesn't mind paying $3 trillion for the conflict in Iraq, but has a major problem taking care of the "collateral damage" caused by it. Our veterans deserve respect as well as support from the military for their service.

Whatever happened to the patriotism the government demanded of Americans? Who's being unpatriotic now?

[egal]

What we knew since long before this war was started is that the chances of getting--and the severity of--PTSD and other mental issues because of serving in combat increase dramatically with every return to combat, and cannot be ameliorated no matter how long the rest periods between; each traumatic experience builds up from the highest risk level reached previously.

What we didn't know--because never before have we had leadership so monumentally stupid and willing to destroy our soldiers and military for their own foolish reasons--was precisely how bad PTSD could get. Even in our worst historical examples since we've been able to more or less accurately judge this sort of thing, none of our soldiers have been asked to return to battle so frequently and for such lengths of time as these have.

Battle changes us. Even the strongest person can't necessarily maintain their personal integrity and emotional stability when forced into so much stress, especially not as alone as our insufficient support systems and uncomprehending families render so many of them. After forcing ou soldiers to do something we knew wasn't healthy or safe for them or the military, we abandoned them, and now they--and the rest of us--are paying for that betrayal.

[doug108]

George Bush has truly made the world a more dangerous place.

[bascombe]

this story needs a bigger audience.

[spanishbombs]

Until mental illness is taken as seriously as physical injury, this problem is going to become a nationwide crisis. Which story would you prefer to call work with: you'll be out 2 weeks with a broken leg or you're so depressed you can't move. I got these kinds of illnesses later in life and i was shocked to learn how debilitating they can become. our culture to this day still looks at these diagnoses; PTSD, depression as voluntary caused by things like laziness. Try getting insurance to cover it, try finding someone good to treat it.

My heart goes out to these kids because they're in a for a lifelong battle now. With employers who don't understand it, health insurers or the Vet. Admin. who will dick them around like you read about, family who want you to be like you used to be and the majority of people who don't have it may think it's a problem of will and motivation so just snap out of it. God bless these kids.

[Montanagramma]

I have read that the Marines are taught it is dishonorable to show weakness by admitting to a mental problem. And, then when troops do actually ask for help they get a run around.

It is more of the same as Cheney says "So" or "They volunteered". Makes me furious!!

My grandson served and was wounded in Iraq. When he came back he developed a severe alcohol problem and other PTSD symptoms. To my knowledge he has not even tried to get help.

[lotuslike]

My prayers are with you, your grandson and the rest of your family, montanagramma. I hope that your grandson will reach out for help---and that he will be able to get it when he does.

This war and all of the ways that this administration has failed our soldiers/vets is absolutely criminal! We must get rid of these inhumane characters that have plundered our country and broken the rest of the world.

[doug108]

That must be a military-wide problem. I saw a show about legitimately injured recruits in army basic training. They are treated like human refuse by their superiors and fellow enlistees. It's drilled into these guys that you don't let your fellow soldiers down. These injured guys were just suffering with guilt and humiliation.

[brooklyncitizen]

This war WILL be with us for another 100 years; I guess McCain was right.
The impact of this immoral transgression will be felt for generations to come.
We should add these deaths to the so-called casualties...it is a continuing tragedy and all Bush can do is claim to "give up golf" .

[OhioJan]

This is an absolutely TRAGIC commentary on our military & government and their undenyable neglect of our Troops: both IN Iraq and HERE at home! These "professionals" have known several years now that they HAVE GOT TO 1) LIMIT THE NUMBER OF TOURS OUR TROOPS ARE SERVING, and 2) PROPERLY TREAT OUR RETURNING SOLDIERS WITH THE PROPER CARE to avoid any future,DEVASTING, losses such as these stories reflect!!!!

This is PRECISELY where we ALL need to start DEMANDING our so called "leaders" to DO SOMETHING ABOUT PTSD NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Start SCREAMING at the top of your lungs, in their faces, crowd into their offices, to stop dismissing PTSD in our returning troops! NOW!!!

[fact finder]

More proof that our Government does not give a Cra7 about our troops or any one else except the rich. VOTE THEN ALL OUT.

[aliceblue]

I don't understand how this guy was diagnosed
with a severe case of PTSD and was still sent back
to Iraq for the fourth time.

[MyAudacity]

I have a niece, only 30 years old, went to Iraq, and is suffering from PTSD
I have a son-in-law there now, and these types of stories scare me to death.
I lost a brother-in-law in Kuwait in 1991
And, I was in Germany when a soldier came back from Desert Storm, beat and threatened his wife until she escaped the home, leaving her 3 year old inside with her Father, who drowned her in a bathtub.

If you don't know the pain, heartache, and distress that is being placed on families whose spouses are on their 4th and 5th tours to either Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, and other "Special" Deployments.

There must be a change and a solution.

It is not that we are unrealistic to not know that there will be wars. What is unrealistic is to think we can keep the U.S. Military hostage in foreign countries, and still be successful.

I believe Obama understand this

[Atlantavet]

A few years after Viet Nam the number of suicides by veterans passed the number of names on the wall - this was reported by the VA. The rate of PTSD among Iraq veterans is higher than it was among Viet Nam veterans. So, the war will have killed over 8,000 personnel, not the 4,000 reported.

In addition about 1/3 of veterans will be on some form of disability - due to injuries, PTSD, etc. Their payments will be from the social security fund. So, we will have an additional 500,000 people on disability as a result of this war.

During the debates this summer, Obama should make this clear. The total cost of the war is much higher than the numbers quoted by the administration. If these additional costs are not highlighted, the same characters in Washington will be complaining about the costs of entitlement programs, while they have added the largest group of disabled to future programs.

Imagine taking a job where you have a 30-40% chance of coming back dead or disabled.

[queotic]

That 4000+ doesn't include soldiers who were wounded, then died later of an injury, so there are actually a lot more dead. The government knows that if the true death toll were known, a lot more Americans would be protesting this unjust, immoral war (even that 22% who still supports Bush).

[chinohillster]

I am so sorry to hear of this loss, and the loss o so many fine young people asked to bear a heavy burden so early in their adult lives.

A small ray of hope... My husband, a doctoral level clinical psychologist with 35+ experience, was recently contacted by an organization called Welcome Home, that is trying to get mental health services for returning veterans. My husband specializes in trauma treatment, dissociation, etc - when he asked me if he should participate, my answer was an unqualified, "YES!"

The VA system is simply swamped - there are too many folks needing services, and veterans should be given vouchers to seek medical/dental/psychological treatment with ANY provider, if the local VA system cannot accomodate them!

[MyAudacity]

It would be good if they offered independent counseling for returning servicemember's. I read an article the other day where the VA was discouraging PTSD diagnosis to keep costs down.

It seems there may be a conflict in interest for the government to send these soldier's into multiple deployments, then penalized them for mental anguish, rather than paying their beneficiaries for their death.

I wonder how many Soldier's would survive better, if they knew they would get a quarter of a million dollars upon returning home safely to their families. A totally unrealistic thought, and not a suggestion.

[Beowoof]

No one has spit on these guys who signed on to protect the country and have come back forever changed, but the lack of treatment and profiteering of this war have been so demoralizing that the effect is the same or even worse. It's too bad the one's who sent them don't have a death before dishonor patriotism.

[Davwbaird]

The experience in Iraq will never go away for those who served there, killing and being shot at, living in horrid coniditons with out enough protection becuase this country failed them. We all failed them due to our madness and fear. We let them down.

[AdobePhsyko]

What Sacrifice ?

Did He Have To Give Up Golf ?

[k6007]

ssssh, we're supposed to be talking about flag pins, and gay marriage.

[lisakaz2]

How the heck does someone diagnosed with "the worst case of PTSD I've ever seen" get sent back to Iraq? That's the height of insanity.

[burnt]

Except in a Catch 22 mentality. It's a means to get those who need help, out of the attention of the public eye.

If they are "over there" and reporters are denied access, and messages back home by the troops are severely censored... then there is no problem. We can just go fill up our gas tanks with a deep understanding how CheneyOilCo is looking out for our freedom and national security.

Are we sleeping better now?