thedrifter
03-07-06, 06:36 AM
Posted on Tue, Mar. 07, 2006
At 61, answering Uncle Sam's call
A Vietnam veteran hopes to help with war's psychic wounds.
By Tom Infield
Inquirer Staff Writer
Steven Silver has been working on his push-ups. He's up to 30.
That's a dozen more than he will have to do to pass his Army physical.
Not bad for a guy who will be 61 next week.
Silver, a psychologist at the Coatesville veterans hospital who served as a Marine Corps flight officer in Vietnam 36 years ago, is expecting final word that he has been accepted as a recruit in the Pennsylvania National Guard.
He is already a year past the age at which even most top generals usually must retire. But state Guard leaders, citing a "critical wartime shortage" of doctoral psychologists with Silver's expertise in combat stress, have urged the Pentagon to waive the age requirement in his case.
The National Guard Bureau agreed to a waiver last month. The Army Recruiting Command, which also must sign off, was to take up the matter yesterday. State Guard officials said they anticipated approval, but no word of a decision on Silver had reached them by last night.
Only 122 of 330,000 Army Guard soldiers across the country are Silver's age or older. The oldest is 67.
Silver, who has signed up for three years of duty, hopes to be sent to Iraq or Afghanistan to help troops deal with stress. What he learns there would help him treat veterans at home.
"I'm not trying to replay some old Rambo tape or collect a bunch of medals or impress anyone," he said. "If they finally turn me down, then that's how the cards are dealt. But I'd feel like I'd missed an opportunity if I didn't give this a shot."
Silver said he had been preparing for his training by doing push-ups and sit-ups. Passing the physical exam normally requires a two-mile run, but Silver was told that can be reduced to a two-mile walk for recruits of a certain age.
"I believe I can walk two miles - if the wind is right... and it's downhill," he joked.
Though bound to a desk for most of his 25 years of civilian employment with the Department of Veterans Affairs, Silver looks in good shape. He does have flat feet. ("Courtesy of the Marine Corps," he says.) He is going bald, but wears a stubby, black pigtail, a totem of the Vietnam era.
Since 1981 he has been director of the in-patient post-traumatic stress disorder program for up to 34 patients at the Coatesville hospital, which specializes in psychiatric care for veterans.
He established the program and is a recognized expert in a form of stress therapy with a long, complex name known by its initials, EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing).
The therapy often involves patients thinking about traumatic memories while tracking the psychologist's index finger from side to side in front of his eyes.
"This may be helping the right side and left side of the brain communicate," Silver said. "It is called bilateral stimulation."
The effectiveness of the therapy is debated among clinical psychologists. But Silver said he had seen dramatic results.
Silver, who earned his doctorate from Temple University, is often called upon to the teach the EMDR technique to other therapists helping people cope with memories of traumatic events.
This has included counselors working with victims of the 9/11 terrorist attack in New York and the 1995 Oklahoma City federal building bombing. He has traveled to the Balkans and to Ireland to help victims of ethnic and religious strife.
The bulk of Silver's clients at the V.A. hospital are Vietnam veterans like himself, although he also sees Gulf War veterans and a diminishing number of World War II and Korean War veterans.
At this point, he said, about 20 percent of the clients in his program are veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Not all troops who go into combat will later need professional help, Silver said. But many will end up with symptoms of post-traumatic stress. These are curable.
Silver saw a good deal of combat in Vietnam from 1969 to 1970. He was a "rear-seater" in an F-4 Phantom jet that provided close air support for Marines fighting on the ground. He and his pilot also bombed targets in South Vietnam, North Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.
His radio call sign was "Lobo," the wolf.
After coming home, he can see now, he had symptoms of post-combat stress.
"I was eating about a roll of Tums a day and drinking a quart and a half of milk to keep my stomach settled. My wife tells me I was having nightmares every night. But if you would have asked me, I would have told you, 'Nothing's wrong. I'm fine.' "
His wife, Jeanie, an artist, is a Presbyterian elder and deacon. But Silver said he was not a traditional religious believer.
As far as politics goes, he supported the invasion of Afghanistan and opposed the invasion of Iraq.
"I didn't think Saddam Hussein was working with terrorists," he said. "He threw them in prison, exiled them, or killed them. I thought it was a diversion from the main mission of hunting down and killing Osama bin Laden."
Asked whether he thought expressing those views would jeopardize his government career, he said: "It is not disloyalty to say my government has made a mistake. In fact, I think it is my duty as a citizen."
Silver was a captain in the Marines. He isn't sure what rank the National Guard will assign to him. He said he doesn't much care.
Marines, even former Marines, "take care of one another," he said. That's why he wants to go back, he said - to help soldiers and Marines.
Maj. Lawrence Grega, medical recruiter for the state National Guard, said he asked Silver to join. He's hoping Silver makes it. The psychologist job has been vacant for six years.
He said of Silver: "He's quite a catch."
Contact staff writer Tom Infield at 610-313-8205 or tinfield@phillynews.com.
Ellie
At 61, answering Uncle Sam's call
A Vietnam veteran hopes to help with war's psychic wounds.
By Tom Infield
Inquirer Staff Writer
Steven Silver has been working on his push-ups. He's up to 30.
That's a dozen more than he will have to do to pass his Army physical.
Not bad for a guy who will be 61 next week.
Silver, a psychologist at the Coatesville veterans hospital who served as a Marine Corps flight officer in Vietnam 36 years ago, is expecting final word that he has been accepted as a recruit in the Pennsylvania National Guard.
He is already a year past the age at which even most top generals usually must retire. But state Guard leaders, citing a "critical wartime shortage" of doctoral psychologists with Silver's expertise in combat stress, have urged the Pentagon to waive the age requirement in his case.
The National Guard Bureau agreed to a waiver last month. The Army Recruiting Command, which also must sign off, was to take up the matter yesterday. State Guard officials said they anticipated approval, but no word of a decision on Silver had reached them by last night.
Only 122 of 330,000 Army Guard soldiers across the country are Silver's age or older. The oldest is 67.
Silver, who has signed up for three years of duty, hopes to be sent to Iraq or Afghanistan to help troops deal with stress. What he learns there would help him treat veterans at home.
"I'm not trying to replay some old Rambo tape or collect a bunch of medals or impress anyone," he said. "If they finally turn me down, then that's how the cards are dealt. But I'd feel like I'd missed an opportunity if I didn't give this a shot."
Silver said he had been preparing for his training by doing push-ups and sit-ups. Passing the physical exam normally requires a two-mile run, but Silver was told that can be reduced to a two-mile walk for recruits of a certain age.
"I believe I can walk two miles - if the wind is right... and it's downhill," he joked.
Though bound to a desk for most of his 25 years of civilian employment with the Department of Veterans Affairs, Silver looks in good shape. He does have flat feet. ("Courtesy of the Marine Corps," he says.) He is going bald, but wears a stubby, black pigtail, a totem of the Vietnam era.
Since 1981 he has been director of the in-patient post-traumatic stress disorder program for up to 34 patients at the Coatesville hospital, which specializes in psychiatric care for veterans.
He established the program and is a recognized expert in a form of stress therapy with a long, complex name known by its initials, EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing).
The therapy often involves patients thinking about traumatic memories while tracking the psychologist's index finger from side to side in front of his eyes.
"This may be helping the right side and left side of the brain communicate," Silver said. "It is called bilateral stimulation."
The effectiveness of the therapy is debated among clinical psychologists. But Silver said he had seen dramatic results.
Silver, who earned his doctorate from Temple University, is often called upon to the teach the EMDR technique to other therapists helping people cope with memories of traumatic events.
This has included counselors working with victims of the 9/11 terrorist attack in New York and the 1995 Oklahoma City federal building bombing. He has traveled to the Balkans and to Ireland to help victims of ethnic and religious strife.
The bulk of Silver's clients at the V.A. hospital are Vietnam veterans like himself, although he also sees Gulf War veterans and a diminishing number of World War II and Korean War veterans.
At this point, he said, about 20 percent of the clients in his program are veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Not all troops who go into combat will later need professional help, Silver said. But many will end up with symptoms of post-traumatic stress. These are curable.
Silver saw a good deal of combat in Vietnam from 1969 to 1970. He was a "rear-seater" in an F-4 Phantom jet that provided close air support for Marines fighting on the ground. He and his pilot also bombed targets in South Vietnam, North Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.
His radio call sign was "Lobo," the wolf.
After coming home, he can see now, he had symptoms of post-combat stress.
"I was eating about a roll of Tums a day and drinking a quart and a half of milk to keep my stomach settled. My wife tells me I was having nightmares every night. But if you would have asked me, I would have told you, 'Nothing's wrong. I'm fine.' "
His wife, Jeanie, an artist, is a Presbyterian elder and deacon. But Silver said he was not a traditional religious believer.
As far as politics goes, he supported the invasion of Afghanistan and opposed the invasion of Iraq.
"I didn't think Saddam Hussein was working with terrorists," he said. "He threw them in prison, exiled them, or killed them. I thought it was a diversion from the main mission of hunting down and killing Osama bin Laden."
Asked whether he thought expressing those views would jeopardize his government career, he said: "It is not disloyalty to say my government has made a mistake. In fact, I think it is my duty as a citizen."
Silver was a captain in the Marines. He isn't sure what rank the National Guard will assign to him. He said he doesn't much care.
Marines, even former Marines, "take care of one another," he said. That's why he wants to go back, he said - to help soldiers and Marines.
Maj. Lawrence Grega, medical recruiter for the state National Guard, said he asked Silver to join. He's hoping Silver makes it. The psychologist job has been vacant for six years.
He said of Silver: "He's quite a catch."
Contact staff writer Tom Infield at 610-313-8205 or tinfield@phillynews.com.
Ellie