Scars of war follow returning veterans: Conference airs tips for police
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HOLYOKE - While police must enforce the law with an even hand, they owe special care to combat veterans, whose experiences may have damaged them psychologically.
That was the message from veterans, medical experts and law enforcement at a daylong conference Wednesday at the Log Cabin Banquet and Meeting House.
"We're not above the law - that's not what this presentation is about," said Christopher McGuirk. The former Army platoon leader said he still has mental scars from fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, being injured by a rocket-propelled grenade, and watching one of his soldiers die on the battlefield.
Originally from New York, McGuirk is now the western Massachusetts representative of the Statewide Advocacy for Veterans' Empowerment program, which tries to help troubled veterans.
Speaking from his own experience, McGuirk said it can be hard to leave the reflexes of the combat zone behind. In Iraq he spent months avoiding buried explosives while riding in Humvees. Driving stateside streets, he said, he instinctively swerves out of the way of merging traffic, potholes and guardrails - all of which were potential hiding places for bombs in Iraq.
Here, that's the type of driving that gets noticed by police.
Notice they should, McGuirk said, but police should also notice signs veterans like him are in distress, and temper their approach to make sure the encounter doesn't escalate into something worse.
McGuirk was speaking at the second conference on returning combat veterans' issues hosted by Northwestern District Attorney Elizabeth Scheibel, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Leeds and others. The first was in 2007.
Of course, combat veteran and police officer are not mutually exclusive categories. After serving with the Marine Corps Fleet Anti-Terrorism Security Team and doing a tour in Afghanistan, Hunter Guiles said, he got little satisfaction from his last job with a cable company. So in 2007, he joined the Amherst Police Department.
Guiles added he appreciates the special care his department takes to help officers manage stress.
Officers can be uncomfortable talking about their problems with outsiders, Amherst Officer David Rhoades said in an interview. For that reason Rhoades acts as a sort of liaison between officers and counselors or other human services providers who can help them.
Rhoades said police officers sometimes have difficulty taking themselves off duty, remaining in a state of what he termed "hyper-vigilance" that isn't healthy. Investigating deaths can also be traumatic, he said.
"You're not supposed to see bodies like that," he said. "You get to a funeral and they're all cleaned up."
Michael Cutone, an Army and National Guard veteran, has been a state trooper since 1999. Cutone said he takes extra time during traffic stops to speak to any veterans he's pulled over. Vets are often easy to recognize, he said, by the stickers on their car, their haircut and clothes, or even the way they carry themselves.
Cutone said he recently pulled over a van whose occupants were mooning other motorists on Interstate 91. One Cutone recognized as a soldier on leave by the tan boots he wore. He decided to pull this person aside for a pep talk, he said.
Rob McAllister of Amherst, who joined the Army at age 30 after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, said he envied veterans like Guiles and Cutone.
Those who return to law enforcement agencies after their combat tours, he said, often get to work alongside other former soldiers. A farmer, McAllister said he misses the camaraderie of working with fellow veterans.
Camaraderie is crucial to overcoming the emotions of having been in combat, said Dominick Sondrini. A former Marine who fought in Fallujah, Iraq, in 2007, Sondrini is now a caseworker at the Soldier On homeless veterans shelter in Leeds. He said helping them work through their troubles is therapeutic for him, too.
"I sit down and talk with people that have similar experiences as me every day," Sondrini said.
In another presentation, VA doctors Scott Cornelius and Jeff McCarthy broke down the causes and effects of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
"We are hard-wired to be anxious as a species," Cornelius said. "It helps us avoid life-threatening situations." But in post-traumatic stress, he said, that natural anxiety is pushed into overdrive.
Cornelius cited government numbers indicating 6 to 11 percent of Afghanistan veterans and 12 to 20 percent of Iraq veterans have been diagnosed with PTSD. By comparison, 30 percent of Vietnam veterans are said to suffer post-traumatic stress.
Everything from the tense patrols described by McGuirk to firefights to seeing dead and wounded people can cause post-traumatic stress, Cornelius said.
For some the stress goes away on its own, while for others it lasts a long time, giving way to symptoms like anxiety or flashbacks. Treatment of PTSD is still evolving, Cornelius said, but one effective tool is aversion therapy.
For a veteran afraid of crowded spaces, McCarthy said, a trip to the grocery store could be a therapeutic exercise. While the rush of busy shoppers might set off the veteran's anxiety, he said, methodically moving through the aisles and seeing there's no danger can be healing in the long run.
Patients are shown techniques for calming themselves, like breathing exercises, to help them complete the task, McCarthy said.
McCarthy said 10 percent or more of Iraq veterans suffer from traumatic brain injury, which can be caused by head wounds and bomb blasts. The figure is higher than in previous wars, he said, mainly because better helmets and battlefield medicine are minimizing injuries that in the past would have been deadly.
James F. Lowe can be reached at jlowe@gazettenet.com.
