Young Marine Dies Of PTSD - And Neglect

[10thzodiac]

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Young Marine Dies Of PTSD - And Neglect


Jonathan Schulze was a United States Marine.

He died earlier this month at the age of 25 -- not in Iraq, but back home, in Minnesota.

He died of wounds received during his seven-month tour of duty in Iraq, wounds different from the ones that earned Schulze two purple hearts. This young man died of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, of wounds to the soul and not the flesh. He died because the government that was there to send him far away to fight in 2004 wasn't there for him when he got home.

Schulze had a harrowing time in Iraq, spending time in the heated battles of Ramadi in April, 2004. While he was there, 35 Marines in his unit were killed, including 17 of them in just 48 hours of combat.

The young Marine was wounded twice in battle but returned home to rebuild his life and to cope with the things he had seen, things he had done and friends he had lost. But, by the time he was discharged from the Marines in late 2005, he was deeply troubled with images of combat and violence that he could not get out of his mind.

According to Minnesota press reports, Schulze went to the Veterans Administration (VA) center in Minneapolis on December 14, 2006, met with a psychiatrist and was told that he could only be admitted for treatment four months later, in March.

On January 11, 2007, accompanied by his parents, he went to the VA hospital in St. Cloud, Minnesota and told people at that VA facility that he was thinking of killing himself. They told Schulze that they could not admit him as a patient and sent him on his way.

The next day, January 12, Schulze called the VA, reiterating that he was feeling suicidal. He was told that he was number 26 on the waiting list.

A man who had risked his life in Iraq and done everything that was asked of him by the United States government, was told by that same government that his sacrifice would be repaid by being 26th on a list of Veterans similarly crying out for help.

"Jonathan wanted help so bad," said Marianne Schulze, Jonathan's stepmother. "At the end of the conversation, Jonathan got off the phone so distressed."

On January 16, Schulze called his family and told them that he was going to do it -- he was going to kill himself. His family called the local police, who raced to his house, kicked in his door and found him hanging from an electrical cord.

Attempts to resuscitate him were unsuccessful.

Having read about Schulze while on a trip to Minnesota, Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) brought the story to the floor of the Senate and read it into the record on Monday.

"The story is nearly unbelievable to me," said Dorgan in a speech on the Senate floor. "The newspaper description of the flag-draped coffin of this young marine who earned two Purple Hearts fighting for his country in Iraq contains a sad, sad story of a young marine who should have gotten medical help for serious psychological problems that were the result of his wartime experience."

The Marine's family says that he couldn't sleep, would have nightmares reliving the combat he had experienced and suffered from vivid flashbacks when awake.

“He was a delayed casualty of the Iraq war,” his father, Jim Schulze, a Vietnam Veteran, said of Jonathan.

Jonathan Schulze, who leaves behind his fianceé, a 6-month-old daughter and who had another baby on the way, was a machine gunner who wrote often to his parents about what he was experiencing in Iraq, the firefights, the bombings and dismembered bodies blown apart by Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs).

“I pray so much over here and ask God to keep me out of harm’s way and to make it back home alive and in one piece,” he wrote to his parents in 2004. “I bet I easily pray over a dozen times a day and I always pray while I am on patrol as I am terrified of getting hit by an IED aka a bomb. Our vehicle elements and Marines on patrols are getting hit hard by these bombs the Iraqis plant all over and hide on the ground.”

He survived all of that only to come home and find neglect, the results of an administration big on tax cuts for the wealthy, but not real strong on taking care of Veterans returning home from the war created by the George W. Bush and, until this month, left unchecked by the do-nothing Republican Congress.

As is often the case when things like this happen, the VA is citing privacy laws and won’t talk about the Schulze family’s account of what happened to Jonathan or issue any comment at all.

But Senator Dorgan says he's going to press for answers.

"I am going to ask the inspector general to investigate what happened in this case," said Dorgan on the Senate floor. "What happened that a young man who was a marine veteran with two Purple Hearts turns up at a VA center and says: I am thinking of committing suicide, can you help me, can you admit me, and he is told: No, the list is 26 long in front of you?"

"Are there others who show up at a VA center and say: I need help, only to be told no help is available? I hope that is not the case. It is the unbelievable cost of war."

[geneo204]

vERY GOOD ARTICLE,. GENEO SEMPER FI.

[sgt tony]

We must send letters and call the congress sentors and the white house and any other that will listen and hopfuly help.

We went through the same thing during Viet Nam and the va started to help but as ever thing else it not a proirtey. This has to be made one now not years from now.

OK Marines lets geter done

[geneo204]

My son, Gene is due to rotate back to Iraq, and I have a nephew
In the Army, due to go to Iraq, with the 10th army Brigade, I wish
them all the luck in the world, but as you know, the more you go back
the harder it is to stay in one piece. Semper Fi.

[3077India]

The VA... When you absolutely, positively WON'T get help overnight!

[geneo204]

Can't argue with that, we need to kick the french's ass.
Geneo Semper Fi.

[geneo204]

From Geneo 204
My highest praise, goes to the combat Marine.
I never saw combat, but I was close eneough, Okinawa was my base
and I was next in line for VietNam. I lost a lot of my platoon class. in
that stinking place,
and I had breakfast in Shadow Mountain Restraunt, and the person
making my Omlet, was a combat Marine, He saw my red cover with
the Marine emblem, and said join him and his fellow marines for a
drink, He asked If I saw combat, I felt a little ashamed. Semper Fi.

[rktect3j]

It's very sad. Unfortunate, and I hope the VA will get better at working with our troops who ned help. Immediatly.

But I do have to wonder if he was also being seen outside of the VA. He was 26 on a list (that sucks cuz for the troops there shouldn't be a list) but that should have prompted him to seek help elsewhere in the meantime. Suicide prevention centers are everywhere. If he was being seen at a center and still committed suicide while waiting for the VA I don't know if it would have made that much difference in the end.

One more tragic end.

I'm a bit worried though about the title. Seems a bit slanted IMHO. Might as well say "VA kills Marine" The VA uses what funds they have/are issued to do what they are supposed to do. Our congress needs to up those funds.

Semper Fi.

[MacAngus]

He tried to get civilian help but he didn't have insurance or the money to cover it his brother wrote a letter on this website about a week ago about everything he went through trying to get help.I think it was in the drifters place but If it's not there it's on here somewhere.

[3077India]

...The VA uses what funds they have/are issued to do what they are supposed to do. Our congress needs to up those funds.

I'm given to believe that because the Damnocraps come across as being anti-military, they are also anti-veteran, so therefore fat chance of the Damnocraps increasing funding for the VA.

[ridingcrops]

I've posted about this before. Abe Lincoln once said "The way a country takes care of it's veterans shows it's character." What does it say for us now? We ask these young people to do a dirty job and then forget about them.
And the budget for the VA has been slashed again by the deserting coward and they are now trying to blame the Dem controled Congress. But the budget slashing was done by the deserting coward BEFORE the mid term elections with a repub packed Congress. What's that say about the repubs? They don't serve and then the penalize those who do by slashing the VA budget and taking away Vets benefits ala Reagan.

[Sgt Leprechaun]

Yeah, crops. Right.

BTW, this country has, with the exception of WWII, pretty much ALWAYS treated the veteran like crap. From the Rev war until today. Ever hear of the WWI bonus army? I'm sure, though, that was also the republican's fault somehow.

Dems are just as guilty of this as Repubs are, but oddly enough, I don't see you ranting away about that.

[10thzodiac]

I've posted about this before. Abe Lincoln once said "The way a country takes care of it's veterans shows it's character." What does it say for us now? We ask these young people to do a dirty job and then forget about them.
And the budget for the VA has been slashed again by the deserting coward and they are now trying to blame the Dem controled Congress. But the budget slashing was done by the deserting coward BEFORE the mid term elections with a repub packed Congress. What's that say about the repubs? They don't serve and then the penalize those who do by slashing the VA budget and taking away Vets benefits ala Reagan.

"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional as to how they perceive the Veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their country."

– George Washington

[10thzodiac]

I'm given to believe that because the Damnocraps come across as being anti-military, they are also anti-veteran, so therefore fat chance of the Damnocraps increasing funding for the VA.

http://www.leatherneck.com/forums/showthread.php?t=31362

[rktect3j]

http://www.leatherneck.com/forums/showthread.php?t=31362

What was attached to it?