Seeking treatment for alcohol problems and PTSD.
Tom:
I'm Tom and I served in the service in the Army Air Corps 1945 until 1948. I was going to come out and make a career and I joined the inactive reserves to go back in to keep my rank and time, and my GI bill. I find a good job, good money, good pay and then they called me up in August of 1950, I had to report the first of September and I went to Korea and I was there until 1951, and it was a living hell, and it was tough in that infantry. And the worst thing about it, buddies, and friends, close, you lose. It makes you sick at your stomach. Its tough but this was one of the things that, when I came back it threw me.
After I came home I had problems. I had nobody, I didn’t know how to work them out. I couldn’t walk very good and I had some problems to hold my job down. But I had a problem with my remembering things and I thought I was weak, a man doesn’t let things like that bother him and the trouble is, if you keep too many things inside, you could hurt yourself.
I lost my wife through death and being a widower and 34 and a half years married it knocked me and I didn’t know what to do. I drank too much. I took the pills and I drank. I took the pills and I dropped the pills and then I had to go into a detox which I did and I went in and I changed. I don’t go and get soused.
I went to the VA because I was having more problems with my injuries, and I went up there and I talked to them up there and the doctor said, I’m nervous. I was nervous. I jumped, somebody noise behind me, somebody up and tap me, I’d jump, and then they, they told me I had post-traumatic stress and I, “what’s that?” And they told me what it was and, after associating with the guys, my buddies up there who had the same problem, I understood my problem. I went to a Psychiatrist and told me what to do, talked with me.
And the best thing for me, even today, when I go up and I spend the time with my buddies up there, and we’re all in the same boat, we served together. I see them, it’s like a shot of adrenaline. We can talk, we can say things our whole life that we kept inside and we could tell each other and we understand each other, and everything’s between us, it stays in that room.
Don’t wait until you’re 70, 80 years old and find out what you have to do. Look at me, look at how much you waste. If my fellow Veterans that have that problem, it’s out there. It’s there, use it to help yourself. The country will help you.
