COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: Military Service: Casualties
Troubled Soldier Gets Demoted, Not Treated
Aaron Glantz, Inter Press Service
July 6, 2007
Cody Miranda joined the U.S. MarineCorps when he was 17 years old. He loved the military and hoped to
spend his entire career in the service.
Miranda has served more than 16 years in the Marine Corps. Over the
years, he's been deployed to the Middle East six times, including
stints in the 1991 Persian Gulf War and the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
But when he returned from a tour in Iraq in 2003, his stepmother
Jodie Stewart says, he was a changed man.
"He always used to be over focused on time as the military trains you
to be," she said as an example. "He's never on time for anything
anymore. I don't know how to explain it to you. How do you explain it
when a man who used to behave one way has gone abstractly and
profoundly different?"
After returning from Iraq, Cody Miranda divorced his wife and pulled
away from his son. He started drinking too much and was found in
possession of cocaine.
"He never received any of the post-deployment questionnaires that now
are mandatory for all troops," said Amanda Newman, a licensed family
therapist who's been seeing Miranda on a pro-bono basis for the past
few weeks. "He couldn't understand why all of a sudden his life was
falling apart."
In 2005, Miranda went Absent Without Leave from Camp Pendleton in
California for nearly a year and lived homeless on the street.
When he returned to the Marine Corps, military doctors diagnosed him
with severe post-traumatic stress disorder; an anxiety illness that
can develop after exposure to a terrifying event or ordeal in which
grave physical harm occurred or was threatened, according to the
National Institute of Mental Health. A person having a flashback may
lose touch with reality and believe that the traumatic incident is
happening all over again.
Military doctors also diagnosed Miranda with bipolar disorder,
insomnia and sleep apnea.
But rather than give him treatment for his illness, the Marine Corps
lowered his rank to private from staff sergeant, threw him in the
brig multiple times (most recently for being five minutes late for a
hearing), and began court martial proceedings that can lead to a
dishonourable discharge -- which would have denied the medical
benefits Miranda needs to get his life right again.
Newman said Miranda needs inpatient psychiatric care, which he is not
receiving, and complained that her attempts to see him while in the
brig were delayed as a result of military orders.
"I asked immediately to see him in the brig and was told that it was
not possible," Newman wrote to Miranda's military lawyer on Jun.29.
"This is absolutely unacceptable: if a Marine was experiencing a
medical emergency and had cut an artery and was bleeding profusely,
he surely would not be denied treatment simply because he was in the brig."
"In fact I would assume and hope that he would be transferred to the
hospital for appropriate treatment. There is no difference regarding
the severity and crisis nature of Pvt Miranda's psychiatric condition
and that of a medical condition: both are life threatening, " she wrote.
Officials at Camp Pendleton did not respond to multiple telephone and
e-mail inquiries by deadline. Thirty-six hours after receiving a
written request for information, a public affairs representative of
the base told IPS: "I still don't have anything for you."
But public attention did appear to have an effect, however.
On Tuesday, after veterans' groups helped Miranda file formal
complaints with California Congressman Ken Calvert and Senator
Barbara Boxer, Camp Pendleton's commander, Col. James B. Seaton,
abandoned plans for a court martial.
According to military defence lawyer Captain Bart Slabbekorn, Miranda
was brought before the base commander Jul. 3 and given "non-judicial
punishment."
"As a result of today's proceedings, Pvt Miranda may be retained in
the Marine Corps or he may ultimately leave active duty," Slabbekorn
wrote in a letter to supporters. "Either way, at this point, he will
be looking at a discharge making him eligible for VA (Veterans
Affairs) treatment down the road."
If Miranda does remain in the military, it's likely he will be
assigned to the Wounded Warrior Battalion, where he would work with
other soldiers facing similar issues.
"The future is up to Miranda," Slabbekorn said.
But Cody Miranda is not alone.
The Department of Defence's most recent mental health survey found
about 20 percent of soldiers met screening criteria for a mental
health problem and that there was a "linear relationship" between
combat exposure and subsequent mental health problems. Nearly
one-third of troops who had seen "high combat" met criteria for a
mental health problem.
Slabbekorn told San Diego's KSUI television between 10 to 20 percent
of soldiers imprisoned in Camp Pendleton's brig suffer from some kind
of combat-related mental illness.
In the first four years of the Iraq war, 1,019 Marines were dismissed
with less-than-honourabl e discharges for misconduct committed after
overseas deployments. Navy Capt. William Nash, who coordinates the
Marines' combat stress programme, told USA Today this week that at
least 326 of the discharged Marines showed evidence of mental health
problems, possibly from combat stress, according to the Marines story.
Nash told the paper he hoped that "any Marine or sailor who commits
particularly uncharacteristic misconduct following deployment.. .be
aggressively screened for stress disorders and treated."
"If a Marine who was previously a good, solid Marine -- never got in
trouble -- commits misconduct after deployment and turns out they
have PTSD, and because of justice they lose their benefits, that may
not be justice," Nash said.
The Marine Corps has yet to follow up on Nash's recommendations.
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