Fort Benning's Wounded Soldiers Next to Firing Range

Wounded Soldiers' Barracks Located Right in the Line of Fire

June 3, 2008

At Fort Benning, GA, recovering soldiers housed in the newly constructed "warrior transition" barracks have an additional challenge piercing recovery. Many of the soldiers suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and the real estate adage about location applies here in full force — the recovery barracks are situated 200 yards from one of the Army infantry's main firing ranges.

Gun fire hails morning and night, hampering recovery for those afflicted. One such soldier who spent a year with an infantry platoon in Iraq and emerged with a diagnosis of PTSD said, "You hear a lot of shots, it puts you in a defensive mode. My heart starts racing and I get all excited and irritable [it] puts me back in that mind frame that I am actually there." Another said, "it makes me crazy. It makes me jump and I get flashbacks." To see what the Army says, read more.

The Army defends the positioning of the housing as convenient to amenities like the hospital, and maintains that if a soldier had a severe problem with the proximity, they would know. The commander of the Warrior Transition Battalion (an excellent name) said, "No soldier has talked with me about the ranges," noting that if it's an issue, "we will address it."

About 175 soldiers live in the gunfire-adjacent barracks, and 10 to 15 percent of them have PTSD. The total number who receive diagnoses of chronic PTSD rose by nearly 50 percent last year. One psychologist who treats veterans with PTSD says of the neighbors, "charitably put, it's very untherapeutic."

Is this a problem that should be addressed? What more could we be doing to ease a soldier's return from battle?

Source

52 Comments

arbywhopper 4 years 50 weeks

Being a military wife this just isn't right. But there isn't going to be a quick and easy fix to this. You can's just move a bunch of soldiers. That's just not going to happen. and Ft. Benning is so old and they have so many soldiers that there probably isn't any place to move them. i know that its not fair. i wouldn't want anyone i care about to be in this kind of situation and i hope that it changes soon.

askmetostay 4 years 50 weeks

there are firing ranges and testing ranges ALL over base at benning. putting them somewhere where they couldn't hear them would be almost impossible. it's easy to pass judgement about the construction of the buildings when you don't know everything else the base and the surrounding community are trying to do to make sure there's enough housing for everyone, and preparing for the thousands more coming to the area in the next year or 2.

Jillness 4 years 50 weeks

I hope they figure out a good way to remedy this situation! Not good for their mental health at all!

CaterpillarGirl 4 years 50 weeks

I dated a guy who was stationed at Ft. Campbell KY, and he told me that there were a couple of guys in his barracks that had PTSD and when i went up to meet them...they were all playing Call Of duty on playstation 2, which is all about shooting and killing people, gun sounds blowing up stuff, and none of those guys looked upset. I am not saying that its not true i am just wondering if they are aloud to play shoot up games around these guys now? did that make sense. i need coffee.

Eilonwy 4 years 50 weeks

when that is not the case...

Eilonwy 4 years 50 weeks

cabaker, what a good point. Anger management difficulties are one of the signs to look for, as it manifests itself the most clearly (compared to more murky symptoms such as flashbacks which may be more private) Someone may be more prone to anxiety hypervigilance prior to deployment. I think what you say is right. What complicates matters, is that comorbid conditions - if a soldier already ahs mild depression or anxiety difficulties - may exacerbate and catalyze the development of PTSD. You are spot on in the public's perception that PTSD emerges in almost all soldiers.

hausfrau 4 years 50 weeks

lilkim - thats pretty much what im trying to say

lilkimbo 4 years 50 weeks

I guess I could be wrong, too, Eilonwy. I could have misunderstood what cabaker is saying. I think she's trying to say that less serious, though still problematic, anger problems are often mistaken for the more serious PTSD.

hausfrau 4 years 50 weeks

eil - when a servicemember comes back, thier spouse is told to look for anger issues as a cue to ptsd (among other symptoms like insomnia, depression, etc)... so speaking on the issue of anger alone, there are many cases of people being like that before they left and it just either being ignored or undiagnosed. i should have said the same about depression, but i didnt! i'm sorry! i think the media can protray ptsd as something that the majority of people coming back have, which is false. but because of politics and the desire to cover one's own behind, many people who might simply have depression or anger get diagnosed with ptsd. again, im only speaking on my own experience, so clearly i don't know all the cases. i've often wondered though if some of the symptoms of ptsd had been in the person before the deployment, but the stress of the deployment just made it worse. for instance, if you had mild undiagnosed depression before a deployment, then the stress of deploying made your depression worse, when you come back if you are still depressed, would you mistakenly get diagnosed with PTSD? just something to think about...

Eilonwy 4 years 50 weeks

oh sorry cabaker, my mistake! I misread the previous comments. I entirely agree with her then!

lilkimbo 4 years 50 weeks

Eilonwy, cabaker is making the point that anger issues are not equatable to PTSD. I'm confused as to why you think she is trivializing PTSD.

Eilonwy 4 years 50 weeks

for many such illnesses actual chromosomatic areas have been identified...

Eilonwy 4 years 50 weeks

cabaker - most psychopathological illness possess genetic predispositional risks (anorexia, bipolar, depression, schizophrenia) PTSD is the same. If one has a genetic predisposition to the illness and is then confronted with stresses and risk factors, they are more likely to develop the condition. The typical diathesis-stress model.

Eilonwy 4 years 50 weeks

*associate = equate, more or less

Eilonwy 4 years 50 weeks

what do anger issues have to do with this? (I am asking in earnest...I am not actually from the states, so maybe I missed something...) PTSD can manifest in many different forms. Some individuals may become more reactive, but to associated anger issues with PTSD trivializes the latter...

hausfrau 4 years 50 weeks

"i still think its ridiculous that we are the wealthiest country on earth and our military does not have the best health care, equipment and support systems on the planet!" i completely agree! oh! one more thing about PTSD, i read an article a few months ago that said that some people might be genetically predisposed to having a better chance of developing PTSD than others... :ponder: i thought that was kind of interesting, clearly more research is needed...

yesteryear 4 years 50 weeks

cabaker, thanks for shedding some light on the body armor issue - that was seriously horrifying when i heard a year or so back that the soldiers didn't even have the right protective gear. i still think its ridiculous that we are the wealthiest country on earth and our military does not have the best health care, equipment and support systems on the planet! as far as your remarks about PTSD - i see what you're saying, but if the military weren't so desperate for people to join maybe they'd discourage folks with anger issues from starting a career where they are holding a gun all day.

hausfrau 4 years 50 weeks

YY - Without getting too into it, most people can find counseling on bases. As far as PTSD goes, bear in mind that not EVERY single person coming back has PTSD, also bear in mind that many people have/had anger issues before going which are now being labeled as "ptsd", also bear in mind that in previous wars we haven't had a treatment plan for ptsd like we do now. So in some ways, that was an unplanned expense, that while I agree should not have been overlooked, it was and now we're playing catch up. Considering that it practically takes an act of Congress to buy a roll of toilet paper, I don't think that the blame for the lack of funding or misapprpriations can fall solely on one person. As for body armor, its not as though no one has it. Many of those issues have now been worked out, but body armor, flak jackets, etc have been design and redesigned at least twice in the last 5 years. Many soldiers choose not to wear their flak jackets whenever possible because they were designed with politicians in mind, not the soldier. What I mean by that it, they are cumbersome, uncomfortable, and restrictive. Basically they are made to keep a death count down, not meant to be protective AND allow the soldier to do their job. My point is that there are many shades of gray and many reasons for outcomes.

lilkimbo 4 years 50 weeks

I'm still waiting for evidence that this is caused by the Bush administration/that military living conditions are any worse now than they have been in the past.

Eilonwy 4 years 50 weeks

PTSD is an extremely debilitating condition. Unless one has the illness, one cannot appreciate how terribly distressing any familiar and triggering stimuli (gun shots, imagery etc) can be. The hypervigilance, flashbacks, numbing...all symptoms from all DSM clusters can be exacerbated by tangential reminders, let alone actual gun shots! The proximity to the hospital is hardly compensation when the soldiers are forced to relive the very precipitants of their suffering. The United States is now being faced with a generation of men and women in their twenties who may have to be on disability for the *rest* of their lives, unless they are provided with ameliorated treatment and compensation, due to the trauma incurred at war. This shows a complete and utter dismissal to the wellbeing of the soldiers. It's as if, once they have completed some time in duty, they are left uncared for and disregarded.

hypnoticmix 4 years 50 weeks

Someone pass this on to Extreme Makeover Home Addition. They won't pass up the ratings opportunity to save their lives. Just gotta work the system to get something good out of it.

hausfrau 4 years 50 weeks

Jen - I had the SAME experience... Random booms are the worst because you can at least expect the rat-a-tat-tat of gunfire... I remember when a military newbie moved in next to us and there was a random boom and she ran out of here house and was looking in the sky for smoke and everything! I laughed to myself and then went out and told, No no, that happens all the time, you'll get used to it!! :)

yesteryear 4 years 50 weeks

cine, how's the view from atop your high horse?? racc makes a good point. yes we can all still do stuff to help, but the fact that we are currently spending more money on the military than anything else and yet the onus is somehow still on people like us, and military parents/spouses to fund programs for counseling, body armor, etc... IS A SERIOUS PROBLEM. and YES, this is bush's fault... and he may not be a conservative to you, but he was elected by conservatives, under a conservative platform.