The Role Of PTSD In Vietnam Veterans

This article was about Andrew Brannan, a Vietnam veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (“PTSD”), who shot and killed 22 years old Deputy Kyle Dinkheller in Dublin Georgia. On January 12, 1998, Brannan was pulled over by Laurens County Sheriff Deputy Kyle Dinkheller for driving nearly 100 miles down a country road near Dublin, GA. Once pulled over, 66 year-old Brannan exited his truck and started screaming he was “a goddamn Vietnam veteran” and yelling profanities at Deputy Dinkheller. Then Brannan retrieved a rifle from his truck and fired several shot at Deputy Dinkheller. The deputy was able to return fire but was ultimately killed by Brannan. Brannan quickly fled the scene in his truck but he was captured the next morning.

Majority combat soldiers often witness countless deaths; they suffer from severe injuries, and guilt for being unable to save the life of a traumatically wounded soldier. The trauma of our veterans deserves more medical and psychological treatment and resources to fund the treatment. There are numerous reasons a veteran with PTSD should be exempt from the death penalty. First, PTSD is not just a mental illness it is an injury. As such, an injury deserves to be properly treated and rehabilitated. Society and the legal system need to be more vigilant in our understanding of what triggers PTSD. Veterans that are unable to be restored back into society should be placed where they can live their lives comfortably with limited interaction within regular society. Veterans scarified and often paid with their lives to serve for their country and their country should display more appreciation. If U.S. legal system feels it’s too expensive to properly care for our veterans than we should stop instigating fights that lead to war. Secondly, we claim not to have money for veterans and veterans’ healthcare but billions of dollars are spent on funding wars, and the Republicans support millionaires instead of supporting the military veterans. For instance, the Bush Administration’s 2004 budget underfunded veterans’ healthcare by nearly two (2) billion dollars. It often seems that deceased veterans are better off than injured ones because they are less expensive. More military veterans have committed suicide because of the government lack of support and the Veteran Affairs carelessness and backlogged claims. Remember Daniel Somers, the Iraq War veteran who took his life in June 2013. Somers left behind a suicide note. In a part of Somers’s suicide note, he stated, “My body has become nothing but a cage, a source of pain and constant problems. The illness I have has caused me pain that not even the