American Sniper: Moral Injury

Before I read this book, I had a limited understanding – it’s still limited due to the fact that I’m not a soldier, nor have I fought in a war – of how those who fight these wars for us are truly affected by the actions required. When we think of a soldier returning from war, we think of them as a hero, which they are, but we fail to think of how they’re could be feeling about the things they had to do. We fail to understand that PTSD is real and common in many soldiers; we fail to understand that we shouldn’t treat them as a “ticking time bomb” , but rather a fellow citizen that needs our help and understanding. We fail to see them as anything more than a soldier; we fail to see their humanity. This book opens up this disconnect a little more. Though the characters are fictional, we are still able to see real feelings that soldier face during and after the war, thanks to O’Brien’s experience. Though there still isn’t a perfect understanding of these feelings that soldiers face after war, the book has helped me to understand just how big this disconnect is. Though these feelings very well could be felt after any war that the nation has fought in, I feel like disconnect between veterans and civilians was broadened after soldiers returned from Vietnam. Civilians had seen on the television, for the first time,

David Morris the author of “The Evil Hours”, shares his story of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) that also affects many people, including 8% of the population at some point in their lives. He was a former Marine that now suffers from this disorder today, which is the 4th most common psychiatric disorder in the United States. The disorder still remains a mystery to many people. He discusses with several other victims of PTSD and further analyzes the cultural history of the illness. Throughout the book he talks to several different people including those who are currently suffering, family members, and to many Americans and others who are unaware. He goes through and talks about those who have had near death experiences with war

In this article, Peter Katel interviews veterans returning from Afghanistan. He tells us how one service member, Coleman Bean is diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after his first combat tour in Iraq. However, two years after returning home to South River, N.J., Sgt. Bean returned to duty. After that second deployment, the 25-year-old shot and killed himself. This shows us just how bad this awful disorder is, we need to stop ignoring the situation at hand and help or service men and women returning from war torn countries. Reading this article has given me incite on just how bad the situation is and will go well in my presentation.

In 2014, Chris Kyle played a role in a movie about a young military soldier called “American Sniper”. The soldier was on active military duty. He had been traumatized overseas by witnessing the violence of war along with the death of many of his friends. When he returns to normal civilian life he had a very difficult time readjusting. He found himself having severe mood swings. At night he could not sleep and would have severe nightmares that kept him up. Anytime a loud noise was to occur near him he would go into a protection mode. He was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Unfortunately at the end of the movie the disorder had taken control of his life and ultimately he did indeed die by suicide. This movie shed the light to many Americans who were unclear as to what Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is.

The New York Times Bestselling book American Sniper is an Autobiography.Written by The main character who is a sniper that went overseas and earned the nickname “the legend” after the impressive number of kills he made during his time as a seal. The main characters conflicts and resolutions take place between the writer and his family and in my “opinion” the conflicts and resolutions in this book is what makes the message. This book mainly takes place in Iraq and different cities in Iraq such as Fallujah and many more. Some of the biggest events in this story was when he was accepted into the service.When the attack on the twin towers occurred on 9/11.And when he was kicked out of the service for his high blood pressure. And at the end of the book when he was killed.

American Sniper, Source B, is present in my article as one of the examples of a veteran who suffers minimally from PTSD, and took pride in his work he did in the Navy. Chris Kyle,

When Post Traumatic Stress Disorder first hits, veterans deal with numerous side effects, such as anger, anxiety, fatigue or depression. PTSD has always been an extremely complex topic to comprehend. The injuries faced by these victims do not reflect those of someone who had been shot or, hit by a blast, but it is something that nobody can see. It is what the Lone Survivor foundation calls an “Invisible Injury” (Education:LSF). Although it can look as if one with PTSD is normal, their minds are not. Although some may think PTSD is not a large-scale problem for veterans, “Researchers estimate that between 7% and 20% of veterans of the recent wars have suffered PTSD at some point” (Zarembo). Even though 7% or 20% is only a fraction of the overall

In Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks’ HBO miniseries, Band of Brothers, soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division are followed through World War II. The viewer observes all of Easy Company’s mental struggles through the war. Within this series, the accuracy in which Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is displayed is a large talking point among scholars. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, commonly referred to as PTSD, is a problem that any person can develop. After a person is involved in a tragic event in his or her life, there can be emotional scarring that affects a person’s personality and lifestyle. Throughout Band Of Brothers, PTSD symptoms are brought on by a soldier’s exposure to war. John Carman, a movie critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, observes that this series shows war to the viewer in a way that doesn’t add politics and unneeded drama. This allows a viewer to have a better understanding of how vicious war really is. Along with these observations, Carman acknowledges the thorough development of characters and how they are affected by the brutality of war is especially interesting. The severity and occurrence of symptoms of PTSD are studied worldwide. This seems to be an interest of a large number of the academic community because this disorder affects everyone differently. Symptoms of PTSD are not without explanation. Seeing another person die, fearing death, observing tragic events, or being the cause of another person’s death are very traumatizing experiences.

Of the twenty top films concerned with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in the past fifty years, 100% are war, war-related, or warlike films. The afflicted characters tend to be male, returning from war, struggling to reintegrate, and suffer, at some point, usually toward the end, from a particularly violent episode, with smaller violent episodes sometimes scattered throughout. Even if the other DSM-5 criteria for PTSD are met, often the violence is the focal point of the main character’s problems and drives the plot. In reality, a survey by Elbogen et al. (2014) found that only 9% of American veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were severely violent and 26% percent had been physically aggressive. By contrast, nearly all military-related

(5) Physiological reactivity on exposure to internal or external cues that symbolize or resemble an aspect of the traumatic

Anyone who has seen war firsthand has some sort of effect left on them. These effects can be grouped under the category of post-traumatic stress (commonly referred to as PTSD). So what is PTSD? By definition, PTSD is “a trauma- and stress-related disorder resulting from direct or indirect exposure to actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence and characterized by persistent difficulties that negatively affect an individual's social interactions, capacity to work, or other areas of functioning.” (Piotrowski,2016) My dad served in two wars, and did four tours total, and the toll it has left on him is immense. This paper is a mere attempt at trying to understand the effects violent conflict can have on a soldier’s state of

Sergeant Nathan Harris served two tours in the Echo Company 2nd Battalion 8th Regiment of the US Marine Corp. In the summer of 2009, when the fighting was at its highest ever since the first initial attack, he was severely wounded and relieved of his duties. Once he is sent home he is left to deal with the physical pain and hardship of rehabbing his broken hip. Along with the physical pain, he fights to keep his mental health stable as well. Struggling with the effects of war on his brain alongside the struggle of taking handfuls of narcotics each day without becoming dependent on them. His story is just a glimpse of what thousands of men and women deal with after returning home from the battlefield.

Domestic violence is considered an interpersonal trauma because it refers to events related to relationships or communication between people. According to Mourad, M. R., Levendosky, A. A., Bogat, G. A., & von Eye, A (2008) an experience of an interpersonal traumatic event is more harmful to mental health than other forms of stressful life events and non-personal traumatic events. Victims of domestic abuse experience specific symptoms of PTSD such as reexperiencing, avoidance, or dissociation after the traumatic experiences. They often have nightmares, flashbacks and visualize their traumatic experiences. They also experience hypervigilance, social isolation, inability to feel pleasure, guilt, or loneliness (Brewer, G., Roy, M., & Smith, Y., 2010). High stress levels are also closely related to PTSD. According to Lokhmatkina, et al. (2013) studies of cortisol and posttraumatic stress disorder revealed significantly higher cortisol levels in people with PTSD. Higher cortisol levels were found specifically in victims of sexual and physical abuse compared to the controls (Lokhmatkina, et al., 2013). Also, higher cortisol levels were also found in people with PTSD due to trauma caused by witnessing domestic violence (Lokhmatkina, et al., 2013). This study also reported that anxiety disorder was associated with higher cortisol levels and depression was associated with small-to-moderate elevation in cortisol output (Lokhmatkina, et al.,

Described as ‘a watershed film on the contemporary genre’, The Hurt Locker (2008) by Kathryn Bigelow portrays the addiction to combat some soldiers feel. The film is set during the Iraq war and follows the story of a sergeant who becomes assigned to an army bomb squad. (More about plot) Acting as an exception to the current trends in the genre, in which war films are focused much more around suicide, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and the dark side of the war, The Hurt Locker provides an exciting and positive view of war. James, the main character, is ‘the living embodiment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder’ however the film treats him as if he does not have the disorder at all.

As stated in a paragraph above, one who serves in war will live through a series of malicious memories and thoughts, causing those inflicted upon to not act as themselves. At one point, Chris was overseas and survived a extremely close call with death. This led to flashbacks of his family and what would happen if he hadn’t lived, so he leaves the Navy to go be a family man. Being out of service, Chris joined a program which helped veterans with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), by slowly but surely getting the men and women back on their feet. This one man by the name of Eddie Ray Routh, was taken out to the gun range by Chris Kyle and his buddy Chad Littlefield, to be shot and killed by the man they were helping, on February second, 2013. This tore his family apart and was such a tragedy to The United States that a movie was made to tell the tale of the Navy Seal legend Chris Kyle, and touched the hearts of people all around the world by making the audience feel as though they were his family, which spread the multitude of emotions given by the stressful death of him.