PTSD cases grow as combat continues for Fort Drum soldiers

FORT DRUM — James E. Bonds sat on the back deck of the Captain's Cove Motel overlooking Henderson Harbor and took a break from preparing reflective bait to watch the sea gulls feed.

“Fishing runs in me,” the lifelong angler said. “My mom said she was even dreaming of fishing when she had me.”

Even when the former soldier was deployed to Iraq in 2005 with the 10th Mountain Division's 2nd Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, he fished.

“I was the only one ... who'd get dressed up in full battle gear to go fishing,” he said.

Mr. Bonds survived an improvised explosive device attack. And during a raid, he was shot twice in the chest at close range. The rounds hit his armor, knocking the wind out of him before his fellow soldiers killed the shooter.

Back home after the deployment, Mr. Bonds began having nightmares about being attacked. One night while asleep with his girlfriend beside him, Mr. Bonds had another nightmare and began to choke her.

“After that, I didn't sleep in the bed with her no more,” he said. “I couldn't trust myself.”

In 2008, a doctor diagnosed Mr. Bonds with post-traumatic stress disorder that he believes came from the countless combat experiences and a traumatic brain injury, which likely came from the IED explosion, he said. To combat the effects of the wars, he makes behavioral health appointments and constantly works to keep the bad dreams and thoughts at bay. He does that mostly by keeping busy. If he's not fishing, he's mowing the lawn or painting.

“The more you harp on it, the worse it gets,” he said. “That's why I'm always doing something.”

Today, Mr. Bonds, who lives in Georgia, spends summers in the north country helping Capt. John A. Delorme with fishing charters. The two met each other during a fishing trip Mr. Bonds took with Fort Drum's Wounded Warrior unit.

And there is no shortage of wounded warriors in the north country.

Fort Drum's 19,500 soldiers are being deployed constantly to unforgiving combat zones. In the decade since 9/11, thousands of Fort Drum soldiers have served three and even four combat tours. The result has been a huge spike in PTSD cases.

During the past five years in particular, the north country has seen the arrest of soldiers, including some highly decorated for combat heroism, for such crimes as fatal stabbings, random street shootings and armed robberies. Many of the soldiers have cited PTSD as the reason for their behavior.

But Fort Drum and the north country remain underserved by behavioral health specialists. While the post offers round-the-clock emergency psychological services, soldiers seeking regular help can wait weeks for appointments.

More behavioral health professionals were needed when the base grew by 5,321 soldiers from 2003 to 2006 — mostly because of the addition of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, said Denise K. Young, executive director of the Fort Drum Regional Health Planning Organization, which works with the post and area hospitals to coordinate and expand medical care in the north country.

“When that happened, we needed to expand,” she said.

In 2005, the county had 39 credentialed behavioral health providers, she said. Now there are 109.

“That's huge. ... That's more than tripling the providers we have in the region,” she said.

Yet those providers are still stretched thin.

“We've been at war a long time and it takes its toll on a soldier,” she said. “These soldiers and families are part of our community and we need to take care of them.”

A decade ago, Fort Drum had 15 providers and now it has 50, according to Dr. Todd L. Benham, the post's behavioral health chief. But current wait times are about a month, he said, as visits to behavioral health specialists grew from 14,000 in 2001 to 75,000 in 2010. The numbers increased not only from PTSD visits, but from more outreach and an addition of a clinic for traumatic brain injuries, which have grown because of IED attacks.

Off-post providers have a three- to four-month waiting list, Jefferson County Community Services Director Roger J. Ambrose said. A maximum of four to six weeks to see a practitioner would be a good start for him, but the number of specialists still must grow.

“We'd love to have people be able to just walk in and be seeing somebody that day,” he said.

The problem is expected to be worse next year. Currently, more than 7,500 soldiers are deployed, but all of them will be back in the north country next year. The Army announced in August that its deployment length will be shortened to nine months from the current 12 months and soldiers can expect two years between deployments. Community leaders project that more home time will mean more families will join their soldiers at Fort Drum.

The increased population will increase demand for behavioral health practitioners, Mr. Ambrose said.

“We can only imagine, I think, that the waiting lists are going to get bigger unless we address the staffing needs of all the clients that we have,” he said.

Last month, the post was approved for funding to hire more psychologists and social workers. And the civilian community is responding to the military and civilian behavioral health need, in part, by recruiting locals to become licensed therapists and by educating natives. Jefferson Community College and Keuka College teamed up last fall and introduced a bachelor's degree program in social work. The county has incentive programs to recruit licensed therapists.

Mrs. Young has seen that those therapists who see military cases often learn skills that help civilians.

“I think that we're learning about trauma and about its impact on people,” she said.

And it helps if the civilian population is sensitive to the trauma that soldiers and their families are going through,

That includes fireworks, Mr. Bonds said.

“If you've ever been in a firefight and you hear them little rockets they shoot at you, it sounds just like them,” he said. “If I know the fireworks are going to go off, it's OK, but if they do it kind of unsuspecting, I still try and find me a hole to climb in.”

Instead of climbing into a hole one night when Mr. Bonds heard kids lighting off fireworks in Henderson Harbor, he walked up to them and asked them to stop because he's a combat vet. They did.

The severe psychological scars combat has left on Mr. Bonds will always last and combating the mental effects of war is something the former soldier will always struggle with.

“I learned, since being in the military, ‘don't ever quit,' because if you quit that's going to be the end of you,” he said. “So I get up regardless ... whether it's a successful day, well, hell, you never know.”