Post denies firing range fussBenning soldiers told Washington newspaper living in barracks near ranges triggers PTSD
BY MICK WALSH - mwalsh@ledger-enquirer.com --
Admittedly, said the commander of Fort Benning's Warrior Transition Battalion, it may not have been the best of ideas to build his unit's barracks across from a firing range.
Especially since 10-15 percent of the battalion's 350 soldiers suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.
But Lt. Col. Sean Mulcahey bristled at the notion that soldiers' requests to transfer to another housing unit, one far from the McAndrews and Shelton Ranges across Dixie Road, are ignored.
Mulcahey was responding to WTB soldiers' charges in a Washington Post article that post officials ignored their repeated complaints about the sound of gunfire.
Mulcahey, who took command of the battalion in late April, and two ombudsmen, who serve as liaisons between the soldiers in the battalion and medical officials, said they never have received such complaints from Sgt. Jonathan Strickland or Sgt. Jonathon Redding, who were quoted at length in the Post story.
"No soldier has ever talked to me about the ranges," Mulcahey said to the author of the Post article, Ann Scott Tyson.
Later, he told a Ledger-Enquirer reporter his unit has fielded requests from soldiers in the past to move to an area away from the ranges and all those requests have been granted.
"That's why this story is so disheartening," he said in a conference room inside his headquarters. "We respond quickly to any request from any of our soldiers. There are so many ways a complaint can be fielded -- to anyone in the chain of command, to the chaplain, to the Wounded Warrior hotline.
"We take PTSD very seriously here. The story calls into question what we're doing for our soldiers. It has damaged the reputation this unit has built over the past two years."
The ombudsmen, William Langston and Woodrow Jarrett, both of whom have served with medical units during their Army careers, contend that members of the battalion have Priority 1 status in the Army.
"Strickland did come to me early on, but it was about another matter altogether," Langston said. "I know that no one has brought to me or Woodrow problems with the ranges across the street."
The Post article, citing Army rules, states that commanders of warrior transition units are supposed to enforce "quiet hours."
Terry Beckwith, the chief of public affairs and marketing for Martin Army Community Hospital, said the ranges were in operation 19 of the past 30 days, primarily from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Only three times during that period was firing conducted at night (8 p.m. to midnight).
But why were the barracks built so close to the ranges?
Primarily because of their proximity to facilities on main post. There is a recently opened $1.2 million Soldier and Family Assistance Center on site and a mini-mall nearby. Buses escort soldiers around post, including to the hospital.
Of the 350 soldiers in the battalion, 176 live in the barracks near the ranges. They stay there an average of eight months, Mulcahey said.
Anyone standing in front of the battalion barracks easily can hear the rat-a-tat-tat of rifle fire across the street.
But, said the colonel, no one is arguing that issue. Gunfire can be heard.
Strickland, who remains on post, is quoted in the Post piece as saying: "You hear a lot of shots, it puts you in a defensive mode. My heart starts racing and I get all excited and irritable."
He added that the adrenaline surge "puts me back in that mind frame that I am actually there (in Iraq)."
The Post article states PTSD symptoms include flashbacks and anxiety, and noises such as fireworks or a car backfiring can make them feel as though they are back in combat. Health experts said that housing soldiers near a firing range subjects them to a continual trigger for PTSD.
Local psychotherapist Harold McRae is quoted in the article about the effect of gunfire on a PTSD patient. "It would definitely traumatize them. It would be like you having a major car wreck on the interstate and then living in a home overlooking the freeway. Every time you hear a wreck or the brakes lock up, you are traumatized."
Mulcahey doesn't argue that point.
But, he insists, any one of his soldiers who has problems with the sounds arising from the ranges simply can contact him or anybody in the unit.
"We'll take care of it," he said
------------------------------------------------------------ Out of every 100 men, ten shouldn't even be there, Eighty are just targets, Nine are the real fighters, and we are lucky to have them, for they make the battle. Ah, but the one, one is a warrior, and he will bring the others back." - Hericletus, circa 500 BC
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