Page 175 - Stand Down Vietnam

Often, soldiers are required to rebuff their emotions
to survive. I know from first-hand experience that
emotional denial, sometimes referred to as “selective
memory” only delays the consequences; therefore the
term: "Delayed-Onset PTSD Syndrome."

Soldiers are forced to deny their emotions. The

sensations felt when they are an eyewitness to a fellow
soldier being wounded or killed; or the reactions felt
when they themselves are placed in a situation where
they must injure, or kill are “stuffed”.

Ask any soldier; they were trained in the fine art of
“stuffing”. It is not uncommon for a soldier to show
signs of such trauma months, or years after the actual
event. The doubt regarding one's own competence during
an engagement, operation, or campaign; the so-called
“fog of war” syndrome, is real.

Denial of events is damaging in many ways. The social
demand placed on returning warriors often becomes too
much for them to cope. Leaving a structured
environment and returning to a society of loose morals
and free-spirited activity in of itself is a traumatic
situation.

The effect of denial, often by denying self, eventually

surfaces in ways which produce new anguish. The new
trauma can include anxiety, alcohol and drug abuse,
flashbacks, nightmares, uncontrollable rage, inability
to maintain relationships, inability to hold jobs, and
suicide.