
Three million men served in the Vietnam War. Of the soldiers who made it home, 271,000 were diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). According to The Things They Carried, soldiers who could not handle the stress of the war would blow off their own fingers and toes in order to be taken to the hospital, escaping the hell they are in. The experiences these men were involved in were so horrifying that the thoughts of battle stay with them for life. Lieutenant Cross struggled to keep his mindset sharp during the war, and realized how difficult PTSD is to overcome. He held onto a fantasy of a girl whom he loved in the homeland, distracting him from the trauma of Vietnam. The war changed these veterans for the worse, and has affected their lives greatly; the psychological nightmare continues even 40 years after their return to the United States.

The Vietnam War impacted soldiers involved, because of the psychological damage they have personally felt from the PTSD from the war. Many normal soldiers who went off to war came home unable to function like before. PTSD has directly caused veterans to feel helplessness, worthlessness, dejection, anger, depression, insomnia, and a tendency to react to tense situations by using survival tactics. In fact, the article “Healing My Own Wounds”, an article published in a 1996, issue of The California Zephyr, states that since the end of the Vietnam War, approximately 150,000 veterans have taken their own lives from mental instabilities (Kelley). Soldiers in the war suffered through major situations. PTSD occurs after experiencing severe trauma or a life-threatening event. In The Things They Carried, the soldiers had to comprehend the possibility of dying any minute. Many of the deaths in the text were random and startling. Lieutenant Cross had the burden of feeling responsible for the death of Ted Lavender. “They carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die. Greif, terror, love, longing–these were the intangibles, but the intangibles had their specific gravity, they had tangible weight” (O’Brien 338). The Lieutenant was experiencing PTSD from a member of his platoon being killed in front of him. The repetitive flashbacks changed Cross’s focus and decision making. Soldiers saw their friends and partners losing limbs and dying left and right. 

War’s true face is not as most people see it. Norton Cru states the true face of war as, “terrible exhaustion, extraordinary fatigue. War is water up to your belly, and mud, and ordure, and unspeakable filth. War is dead moldy faces and rotting tatters falling away from rotting flesh and corpses which no longer resemble corpses, half afloat on the muddy, voracious earth. War is the never-ending monotony of pure misery, broken by intense and bitter dramas. That's what war is” (Cru). Coming home to a normal life for most is not an option. Lieutenant Cross had the expectation of coming home to the girl he spent hours daydreaming about. However, he realized that the war caused separation, and in the letters sent between the two he discovered no love was there. Most civilians back at home do not understand the conditions and struggles the average soldier must endure daily. PTSD has caused many veterans to change – like Lieutenant Cross. For example, a Vietnam War veteran, Jesse, was interviewed by Make the Connection, and he explains how when he came home he went to college. He did not feel accepted for being in the military, and he had many problems that he could not get help with. Jesse coped with it by, “growing long hair and a mustache, and becoming one of “them” (Martin). Many veterans turned to drugs and alcohol in an attempt to cope with the pain. However, some were unable to deal with their PTSD and reluctantly committed suicide. 

PTSD has affected more than just the individual, but their loved ones as well. This relates to the text, The Things They Carried, by the way Lieutenant Cross burns the photograph of Martha, the girl he loves back at home. By the end of the war, the Lieutenant realizes due to the war he could never be with Martha. Martha was a key distraction for Lieutenant Cross in Vietnam, and his daydreams about her posed threat to his platoon. The Lieutenant changed their battle strategy resulting in the team being more fatigued, but safer. Being unable to think about Martha, the rest of the war was strenuous with few ways to cope. With veterans coping, many are drug and alcohol abusers. “Ted Lavender carried 6 or 7 ounces of premium dope, which for him was a necessity” (O’Brien 329). Drug and alcohol abuse can drive an individual away from people, including their family. There are very few actions one can take after being diagnosed with PTSD, and the veterans sometimes do not realize that they are sinking deeper into depression. Alienating one’s self is a result of this, and relationships are difficult to maintain. The US Department of Veteran Affairs has done research that has examined the effect of PTSD on intimate relationships. Their studies reveal severe and pervasive negative effects on marital adjustment, general family functioning, and the mental health of partners. These negative effects result in such problems as compromised parenting, family violence, divorce, sexual problems, aggression, and caregiver burden. Veterans who deal with this have hard times connecting with others including their own children. PTSD’s secondary victims are children of veterans. A wife of a former soldier, Gayle Trepanier, said their kids have been on an emotional roller coaster, each responding differently to dad’s condition. “Kendrick (one of Gayle’s three children), for example, will act out at school to the point where they thought he had ADHD, but it's emotional distress that was causing his outbursts and just unable to relax,” she said (Martin). Approximately 38% of Vietnam veteran marriages failed within six months of the veteran's return from Southeast Asia, according to the US Department of Veteran Affairs. This is due to factors such as PTSD, unemployment, and behavioral issues. These components impact families and are challenging to deal with in a household. 

            After soldiers return from war, they still must provide for themselves and their families, so it would be wise to join the workforce. However, most of the returning soldiers suffering from PTSD have major issues preventing them from getting jobs. When the youthful men left their homes to join the army, they gave up more than they imagined. As they came home, they soon realize how little they have waiting for them in the US; it is solely up to the veteran to transform himself from a war machine to a normal civilian. According to the New Jersey State Council Vietnam Veterans of America, Inc., the average age of an American soldier in Vietnam was 19 years old. These soldiers gave up their youth during the war, and now have to attempt to find work after being deployed for a maximum of 20 years. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate for veterans in 2015 was 5.8 percent meanwhile, the unemployment rate for civilians was 5.0 percent in 2015.  Veterans consistently have a drastically higher unemployment rate than civilians. Getting into the workforce is not a simple task for a veteran. Employers refuse to hire many veterans because of their unstable mental state. Mark Trepanier, a former military intelligence analyst, once made six figures working for a defense contractor, but he can no longer hold down a job. His life now revolves around completing simple tasks at his home in suburban Baltimore. “He needs a task list to remember to feed the dogs, to take care of the pets, to take the trash out,” his wife Gayle said. Mark was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder after serving in the first Gulf War, in Bosnia and in North Africa. When he came home in 2007, he was different as a husband and a father, his wife said. Not only affecting the family, but also the nation’s economy. With the great number of unemployed veterans not contributing to society, it puts our economy in a hole.

            It is evident that life after the war for veterans is just as complex as war itself. When these soldiers returned home with PTSD, it affected each aspect of their life. It caused them to struggle with internal mental illnesses which resulted in them not being able to recognize the men they were before the war. The PTSD they experienced also forced them to lose relationships with friends and family and obtain the inability to hold a job easily. These difficult burdens and drastic life changes added onto the depression the veterans had already been dealing with and made it nearly impossible to adjust to life after the war. Although the war was a traumatizing event, the aftermath of what it did to the American soldiers was something that would last for decades to come. 
