Boats: Could They Cure PTSD?
In Another Great Day at Sea: Life Aboard the USS George H.W. Bush, Geoff Dyer summarizes writer Karl Marlantes theory: "in the Second World War people came home slowly, gradually, by boat, as part of a unit" but "in Vietnam, and in Iraq and Afghanistan, the swift return and dispersal of the group was accelerated and increased, something that may well have played a part in the drastic increase of PTSD" . . . and while this reverse acclimatization into the civilian life may be necessary to healthily adjust from wartime to peacetime, it's also possible that WWII guys were just tougher (this was the time of leather football helmets, a time when you could still die of septicemia from a rotten tooth).
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2 comments:
My 5th grade teacher was a Vietnam veteran and he often talked about his experiences in the war. His biggest gripe that I recall was that he "lost a day of his life" in the process because he crossed the international date line on his way to Vietnam but not on his way home.
He must have been in Intelligence.
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