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Ptsd In The Things They Carried

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Almost 31 percent of Vietnam veterans are affected by post traumatic stress disorder also known as PTSD. In the book The things they carried by Tim O’brien he writes about his stories from Vietnam war. The effect of war are also heard in the television program by This American life interviewing families of soldiers and the soldiers themselves. There is also a radio interview from Frontline that talks about some of the impacts after war. In the Personal Interview I had with Steve McHale a veteran from the Operation of Iraqi Freedom he told me his experiences from war. The impacts of war are loneliness, suicide, guilt, and communication. An impacts soldiers and their families have to deal with during war is loneliness. In the book O’Brian couldn't …show more content…

In my interview with Steve McHale a veteran from the Operation Iraqi Freedom talked about how powerful communication can be. He said that whenever a soldier died all their communication was cut off. When I asked McHale “What was something that impacted you during war” he answered “ A lot of things are probably the worst was when you're off and on the phone or a computer end it gets cut off because one of your brothers in the arms died. all communication outside the country Get it off until the family of the service member are notify through proper channels.” (McHale). This shows that even though they are close to the other men in their rank they still want to talk to their families. Even though they cannot see their family in person they still want to talk to them because their family give them happiness. The problem about not having good communication is that families don't know how to help you. Rat Kiley the medic from O’Brien rank. Was talking to the other men about the girls back home and he said “they’ll never understand any of this, not in a billion years.Try to tell them about it, they’ll just stare at you with those big round eyes”(O’Brien 108). When soldiers come back home people don't know how to treat them and when they tell war stories the are shocked. Nobody knows what to say to them. In conclusion being able to not communicate can affect

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