But a pattern of misconduct detailed by his leaders may not have been behind his departure from Fort Hood last month but a series of cries for help resulting from post traumatic stress disorder.
“The first time was right after he was diagnosed with PTSD after his return from Iraq. He was having problems with alcohol,” said Chuck Luther, a former 1st Cavalry Division soldier who now works as a caseworker for Military Spouses of America. “He just wanted to drown out all the bad things. I know what he went through.”
The command saw neither that first offense nor his PTSD as serious, Luther said.
“Muff said he needed help, and they wouldn’t give it to him,” he said.
So Muff, who lives in Gatesville, went AWOL again.
This time, however, he left the post to get treatment at Scott & White Memorial Hospital because he couldn’t get what he needed at Fort Hood, Luther said.
But when officials at Scott & White discovered he was on active duty, they turned him away, and he was told he had to go back to Fort Hood.
The next day, Muff turned himself in to Fort Hood authorities who, Luther said, were unable to deal effectively with his condition, a condition shared by an increasing number of soldiers returning home from one, two or three tours in combat zones on their records.
“Not enough is being done by the Army to help these soldiers,” Luther said.
Since taking over as Fort Hood’s commanding general last summer, Lt. Gen. Rick Lynch has preached to almost anyone who will listen the need to fund a behavioral health facility to help treat these men and women.
“I’ve cried more in the last two years than I have my entire adult life,” Lynch recently told state lawmakers during a luncheon at Club Hood.
Lynch said more than 500 soldiers on Fort Hood have been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injury, and they are trying to heal enough to return to duty or find employment.
The numbers are actually much higher.
According to Lynch’s own 2009-2011 Campaign Plan, 1,637 mental health referrals were made in fiscal year 2006, and the number increased to 4,592 in 2007. There were about 4,500 referrals again in 2008.
Soldiers who have PTSD or traumatic brain injuries - undiagnosed or not - are often labeled as having a pattern of misconduct, and that leads to discharge, Luther said. The conditions are considered less than honorable, so the soldiers aren’t eligible for VA care after their discharge, according to Army regulations.
In Muff’s case, he did get treatment by Army doctors and was told he would be going to the Warrior Transition Unit to continue with treatment. Eventually he was to have a medical evaluation to see if he could return to active duty, Luther said.
Three weeks later, Muff was told the unit was full, Luther said.
“Warrior Transition Units do not fill up,” Luther said. “They create another brigade. They never stop.”
Luther said the Army is using the pattern-of-misconduct rule as a crutch to avoid paying unearned enlistment bonuses, to avoid paying for disability care and to make room for new soldiers, instead of following their own rules.
“It’s an out-of-the-park homerun for the Army,” Luther said. “They come up with these pattern-of-misconduct disorders to fend off the media. We are behind the power curve.”
HURTING THE FAMILIES
His wife says Sgt. Mark Thomton used to have a clean military record, but that changed in November when he was court-martialed for disobeying an order.
Thomton, who’d served two tours in Iraq, was busted down from staff sergeant to sergeant and surrendered $1,800 in pay and allowance after he refused an order to go to the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif., even though a doctor had listed him as non-deployable.His commanding officer, Capt. Sheldon Morris, who was aware that Thomton was under a doctor’s care for PTSD and TBI, consulted with the doctors caring for Thomton, and overrode their decision, said Julia Thomton, Mark’s wife of 10 years.Because of his injuries, Thomton could not wear his combat gear, but when he refused Morris’ order, he was court-martialed.
Julia Thomton said she didn’t know her husband had been in any trouble until he received his paycheck.
“I thought we were going to be homeless,” Mrs. Thomton said. “They took his rank away without one thought that he had a family, a house, a life.”
Not long after his court-martial, Thomton’s commanding officer recommended he be administratively discharged for disobeying an order. Thomton can’t receive VA benefits if he receives a less than honorable discharge.
“We were living the lifestyle of an E-6, and now we are an E-5. I can see fining us, and I can see doing one thing, but not all three. We are a military family, and this is all we know,” Mrs. Thomton said.
Thomton, a member of the 1st Cavalry Division who is widely known as “Pops,” was diagnosed with PTSD and TBI after returning January 2008 from his second tour in Iraq.
But Julia said he had symptoms of PTSD after returning from his first deployment.
“He basically sat on the couch for 18 months, shell-shocked, then he went back to Iraq,” she said. “He had no help from that first tour, and we tried everything.”
Normally a communications specialist, Thomton served in an infantry role as a dismount gunner, took part in a number of patrols and infantry operations, and as a result, saw a lot of action.
When Thomton returned home, he immediately consulted a doctor for his headaches, and learned that he not only suffered with PTSD and TBI, but had several compressed vertebrae because of multiple blasts from improvised explosive devices.
It took three months for him to get in to see a neurospecialist. He has been undergoing cognitive therapy since May to help him deal with TBI, and seeing a counselor for PTSD.
Thus, Thomton was well on his way to recovery when he was punished and threatened with the loss of his career.
“All he wants to do is his job,” Mrs. Thomton said. “I just want the Army to give him his rank back and let him do his job.”
A GENERAL’S REPRIMAND
In January, Lynch met with post commanders to discuss the administrative discharges being levied against soldiers with PTSD and TBI.
According to III Corps spokesman Lt. Col. Benton Danner, Lynch was not a happy man and reminded the commanders that taking any kind of disciplinary action against a soldier with PTSD or TBI - to include administrative discharges - was contrary to Fort Hood policy.
“We do not chapter our soldiers for discipline if it turns out that a medical evaluation board determines that their misconduct has any medical basis, and that is what he emphasized to commanders,” Danner said.
Word of these administrative discharges had been brought to the attention of III Corps, which apparently spurred Lynch to speak directly with unit brigade leaders.
Danner said III Corps had been told that soldiers who had disciplinary problems were being coerced into taking an administrative discharge, thus aborting the medical evaluation board process.
“Lt. Gen. Lynch was quite clear on that - that this should not be happening,” Danner said.
A WIDOW’S LONELY JOURNEY
Spc. Mark Spruill’s life ended, his wife said, because of problems he brought home from Iraq.
Anastasia Spruill of Canton watched her husband suffer from a host of combat-related issues that resulted in his death last June at the age of 29. Spruill was driving his pickup on a straight, dry road when his vehicle rolled, killing him.
“I have three kids who don’t have a daddy anymore, and a mother-in-law that blames me for every bit of it,” Mrs. Spruill said.
When Spruill, who was assigned to the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment at Fort Carson, Colo., first returned from his deployment, he was initially diagnosed with bipolar disorder, but doctors later changed their diagnosis to PTSD and TBI, Mrs. Spruill said.
Mrs. Spruill said her husband often seemed normal but, without warning, could burst into a rage.
“He was constantly on his guard. He couldn’t sleep, and he had blackouts.”
He was finally discharged following a medical evaluation, certified as 100 percent disabled.
Mrs. Spruill has been trying to get VA benefits, but to no avail.
She even contacted offices of Sen. John Cornyn and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, both of Texas, and is still waiting for an answer.
HELP MAY BE ON THE WAY
A bill called the Dignified Treatment of Wounded Warriors Act found its way to the Senate floor for the first time in 2006 and again in 2007.
Both times, the bill died.
In 2008, Hutchison and Cornyn joined forces and co-sponsored legislation by the same name, which would help troops returning with brain injuries and other mental problems.
Cornyn, who serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee, also supported legislation in 2008 to help veterans suffering from TBI and PTSD.
This includes the Mental Health Care and Other Improvements Act of 2008, which passed last year and will help improve veterans’ care for mental health and substance abuse and improve VA research for PTSD and TBI.
Cornyn also cosponsored the Honoring Our Nation’s Obligation to Returning Warriors Act (HONOR Warriors Act), which recognizes the prevalence of mental-health conditions among returning troops and provides active-duty soldiers the same access to community-based counseling centers that veterans now have for mental health-care services.
Cornyn said HONOR will also increase the number of behavioral health specialists to serve troops and veterans, extend survivor benefits to families of military members who commit suicide - when a clear link between military service and the suicide is established - and more effectively prepare troops for combat deployment through a new approach that focuses on improved prevention, early detection, intervention and treatment of PTSD.
“This gives veterans that honorably served in combat the health-care benefits they earned, while ensuring their discharge process was conducted fairly,” Cornyn said.
He has also co-sponsored the Veterans Traumatic Brain Injury Rehabilitation Act, requiring the VA to develop personalized plans prior to discharge from inpatient care for the rehabilitation of veterans with TBI.
This legislation directs the VA to work with non-VA facilities to provide veterans’ TBI intervention, rehabilitative treatment and reintegration services when a veteran is not close to a VA facility.
“These men and women have served selflessly on behalf of our freedoms and well-being; the very least we can do in return is help them make a smooth transition back to civilian life,” Cornyn said.
