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Veterans stress need for counseling

Thursday, April 03, 2003

By Michael A. Fuoco, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

The daring rescue of Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch from Iraqi forces didn't end the effect her captors may have on her psyche, if the experiences of the POWs who preceded her from other wars are any indication.

	U.S. Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch from Palestine, W. Va, is lifted into an ambulance on a stretcher after arriving on a C-17 transport plane at the U.S. air base in Ramstein, southern Germany, early yesterday morning, European time. (Thomas Kienzle, Associated Press)

Like most of the more than 125,000 Americans who survived capture in conflicts dating to World War I, Lynch likely will need psychological counseling to deal with the trauma of being a POW. She and 11 other members of the 507th Maintenance Company were ambushed March 23 near Nasiriyah, a major crossing point over the Euphrates River northwest of Basra.

First and foremost, Lynch, 19, of Palestine, W.Va., will receive medical treatment for her gunshot wounds and other injuries, and then psychological counseling will commence, experts said.

"She is going to have some post-traumatic stress, some fears from not knowing what was going to happen to her, and she was wounded so she would have been concerned about her wounds," said Frank Kravetz, 79, of Chalfant, an Air Force bomber crew member during World War II. He was wounded in both legs, captured by the Germans and held as a POW for six months after his plane was shot down.

"She's going to be happy, then sad, off and on, and fearful," said Guy Hunter of Jacksonville, N.C., a POW in Desert Storm whom Iraqis held in solitary confinement for seven weeks. "It'll take a professional to help her get through that and back on her feet. But there's no reason why she shouldn't return to full normalcy."

The uncertainty of their fate in enemy hands is what creates psychological scars for POWs, said Clydie Morgan, national adjutant for the American Ex-Prisoners of War organization, headquartered in Arlington, Texas. The group has 17,000 members, about half of the country's estimated 39,000 former POWs, who are dying at a rate of 10 per day.

In the war with Iraq, there are seven soldiers listed as captured and 16 as missing. There have been 48 American troops killed in the war.

"According to interviews with POWs, the first 24 to 48 hours are the most traumatic psychologically," Morgan said. "At that point, you don't know if they're going to kill you."

Afterward, she noted, a POW can be further psychologically affected by being separated from comrades and having little or no contact with anyone other than the captors.

Such was the case during the Vietnam War at the infamous "Hanoi Hilton," where American servicemen were kept mostly in solitary confinement and virtually their only contact with comrades was tapping on the walls of their cells, noted Morgan.

"They can use all kinds of means of torture, such as putting you in a room by yourself and not letting anyone see or talk to you, like they did to us," Kravetz recalled.

In addition to such traumatic memories and experiences, POWs can suffer "survivor's guilt" if members of their unit were killed. It is believed but not confirmed that some of the troops in Lynch's unit were killed.

Lynch will immediately receive whatever psychological help she needs, which is a far cry from what occurred with American POWs who survived their experiences from World War I (a total of 3,973), World War II (116,129) and the Korean War (4,418).

It was only after the 661 POWs from the Vietnam War began to experience psychological problems that mental health experts identified post-traumatic stress syndrome and realized mental health counseling was needed.

Kravetz said he suspects Lynch felt the elation he experienced when American troops under Gen. George Patton liberated him and other POWs held in Moosburg, Germany.

"I can remember it was right after noon and the swastikas came down and the American flag went up on a steeple in town," Kravetz said. "We all just hugged each other and cried with joy because we didn't know when we were going to get out of there.

"I'm sure [Lynch] was joyful to be back with somebody familiar, to have someone to talk to, to know she was going to be free again, that she was on her way to communicate with her loved ones."

But Kravetz said his joy turned to something much darker upon his return stateside. At that time, there was a stigma to having been captured, "that you had given up," he said. And what actually was post-traumatic stress syndrome was dismissed as being "shell shocked" or having "battle fatigue."

"It wasn't until many years later, after the Vietnam War, that the Veterans Administration called us and asked us to come in and tell our stories and receive treatment," Kravetz said.

"I'm still receiving therapy; in fact I was there Monday. It consists of us guys who experienced this being together. We've gotten to be friends and it's a lot easier to talk about now. I never would have talked about this 10 or 15 years ago. I didn't even tell anyone I was a POW.

"Now I'm proud to have a POW license plate, a POW sticker on my car and to say, 'Yes, I was a POW.' "

Hunter said he thought it would probably help for Lynch to talk about her experiences with whoever wanted to listen. "It gets out the feelings and makes you feel a little better inside," he said. "It's nothing to be ashamed of, nothing that's a secret. It makes you come to realize your feelings are natural and normal."

An act of Congress in the early 1990s authorized a medal for all POWs because "they are no less serving their country than someone out in the field," Morgan said.

"The POW medal recognizes they face the enemy every day and recognizes the trauma they suffer."

Morgan, whose mother was held by the Japanese as an 11-year-old during World War II, said that Lynch's rescue brings hope that all POWs will be returned to their loved ones.

"It was wonderful. I talked to several people about it and the first reaction is joy and then it sets in about the rest of [the POWs]. It's tempered a little bit because there's so many more over there, so many we don't know about. When are they going to be released?" she said.

"But it was thrilling to know they went in and rescued her. We haven't seen anything like that since World War II."

Staff writer Lori Shontz contributed to this report.

Michael A. Fuoco can be reached at mfuoco@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1968.