Veteran combats mental wounds

Author reaches out to returning soldiers

Chris Rosenblum

STATE COLLEGE — One time while reminiscing, Sgt. Andrew Brandi and three of his Marine buddies discovered an interesting fact about themselves.

Brandi

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All told, they could claim 23 wives and 270 jobs.

Brandi, a New Mexico resident and Vietnam War combat veteran married three times, has settled into being a combat trauma consultant in alliance with the Department of Defense. His ongoing mission: to help Afghanistan and Iraq veterans struggling with civilian life.

“I don’t want the younger generation to go through what I did, my generation of veterans did,” he said.

Tuesday, Brandi spoke at the annual Suicide Prevention Conference at the Ramada Inn in State College. The conference, coordinated by the Drexel University College of Medicine, continues today.

Brandi wrote “The Warrior’s Guide to Insanity,” which has been endorsed by the Department of Veterans Affairs for use in its counseling centers nationwide. His talk Tuesday centered on explaining the warrior psyche for the mental health clinicians, counselors and other conference attendees from across the state.

“We have a whole lot of veterans returning who are really challenged by what happened to them and their exposure to it,” said Joan Erney, deputy secretary of the state Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, cosponsor of the conference.

Brandi, who served as a line company rifleman in 1966 near Chu Lai, said he has talked for almost three years with troops — about 5,000 this year. He thinks the current wars, dragging on for years with multiple deployments, have created an unprecedented crisis for the military.

“They didn’t expect to have this level of sustained trauma,” he said.

Some troops, he said, have done five or six tours, surviving an average of 1,500 days in the field —

hundreds more than in past wars. Some also have flown home less than a day after fighting.

As a result, Brandi said, he’s seeing a wave of veterans having an especially hard time coping with civilian society. He worries about an imminent epidemic. Even with the VA stepping up counseling, he said, the military suicide rate — 22 people per 100,000 now — has been rising. So have cases of spousal and child abuse, divorce, addiction and even homicide.

The problem, Brandi said, stems from veterans hanging on to the warrior mindset needed to kill, survive and protect their brothers and sisters in arms. He recalled a young veteran in Santa Fe, N.M., who couldn’t drive for fear of IEDs, who balked at crossing a store parking lot and instead circled the perimeter as he would have in Iraq.

“You’re now with your boots firmly planted in two worlds, in two dimensions,” he said. “And the two worlds don’t mesh.”

He knows from experience, having been diagnosed with combat trauma, a term he prefers to posttraumatic stress disorder, since 1980. Back home, he said, combat veterans wrestle with “the beast” — humanity’s violent side, kept in check by most civilians but instilled and nurtured in troops out of necessity.

“The beast is let out, and it will never go back,” Brandi said. “You cannot put it back.”

In war, the beast lashed out, killed without remorse — and maybe liked the adrenaline rush. For his audience, Brandi put a face on the beast, a wolf mask donned by a volunteer. As he did long ago, he said, troops must accept the monster within but learn to tame it.

“The important thing, if you don’t have it under control, it will destroy your life,” he said.

But many troubled soldiers resist counseling, he said. They fear being stigmatized and, if still in the military, dread being separated from their unit. So strong is the warrior bond, Brandi said, that many troops will suffer stoically until they break down or their lives fall apart.

Norman Weissberg, a psychologist with Contact of Greater Philadelphia’s crisis and suicide hotline, said Brandi provided valuable insight into the minds of combat veterans. Such knowledge can only help counselors who have never worn a uniform connect with those who have, he said.

“Somehow we need to create trained people who can serve the guys and gals who elect to not use the VA,” Weissberg said.

Peer counseling and mentor programs, as offered by service organizations such as Grace After Fire, a women’s group, and the Military Order of the Purple Heart, have successfully consoled veterans, Brandi said.

But he reminded audience members Tuesday that they “are a tremendous asset” for veterans, that they can stop slides to suicide.

“We are going to lose thousands of young people,” he said. “But we’re going to do everything we can to save them.”

Chris Rosenblum can be reached at 231-4620.

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