'When Johnny Comes Marching Home"

The recent wars have left an entire generation of soldiers searching for answers and waiting to be heard. Their young lives are torn to pieces as they return with any number of physical and mental conditions.

Zócalo Public Square hosted a panel discussion entitled "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" on Thursday, April 30 at the Hammer Museum at the University of California, Los Angeles, dealing with the large numbers of soldiers returning home from the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars and finding themselves without the assistance they need.

The event was moderated by an unprepared and overwhelmed Jia-Rui Chong, Los Angeles Times veterans' affairs reporter. Chong struggled to come up with questions addressing the most important questions of the evening out of a lack of knowledge on Veterans Affairs and an emotional detachment that only added to the disorganization of the event.

The discussion centered around three different viewpoints on the costs of war, represented by Jennifer Sinclair, the sister of a soldier who was pushed to the side after his service and ultimately died; Army Major Gen. (retired) Paul E. Mock, and David Webb, chief of environmental and military medicine at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center Long Beach.

Post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, seemed to be at direct center of the debate. PTSD is an anxiety disorder that can occur after you have been through a traumatic event. A traumatic event is something horrible and scary that you see or that happens to you.

During this type of event, you think that your life or others' lives are in danger. You may feel afraid or feel that you have no control over what is happening, according to the VA.

The dialect between the panelists opens with Jennifer Sinclair, who is now an attorney, telling the story of her brother, Peter's untimely death. Peter was a Captain in the Army Reserves. He fought in the first Gulf War and was deployed to Iraq again shortly after the beginning of the current Iraq War.

Jennifer Sinclair, the younger sister of Capt. Peter Sinclair has spent the last year of her life searching for answers to why no one would listen. Her brother died of kidney failure due to a lethal mixture of painkillers prescribed by the Veterans Affairs doctors trusted with his care.

"He sustained a back injury that left him with multiple vertebrate fusions and a full titanium cage built around his spine, he needed surgery but he wanted to bring his men home. He also suffered from PTSD," Sinclair said. "He saw hundreds of horrific events. He was there when the suicide bombers hit a school building. He never could let that go."

She finds herself fighting the tears even as the hot lights of the Hammer bear down on her. Her tone changes to anger as she talks of Pete's attempts to find help; for both the physical pain and the emotional. His search for answers was met with a concoction of prescription pain-killers that led to a substance abuse problem.

"He went to get treatment for the substance abuse and a resident prescribed him morphine in conjunction with codeine and ketamine. The medications the VA gave him, killed him," Sinclair said.

Dr. Webb tried his best to defend the case but had only met Peter briefly before he died.

"We prescribe as close to the middle ground as we can. If people are hurting, we can't have them suffering but they may go out and drink with the drugs or worse," Webb said.

"You may see a seemingly normal, healthy 21 year-old, but they may have a stack of problems that we have already had to deal with or are currently dealing with."

All parties agree the fault can be partially placed on the soldiers that have a hard time communicating their feelings.

"It can be 130 degrees outside and these guys are carrying 40 to 60 pound rucksacks on their backs, working 18 hour days and you will never hear them complain so when needs arise, they are hesitant to speak up," Mock said. "Soldiers, airmen, sailors and marines are all screened prior to leaving (combat zones), and again when they return to their home duty station so there are plenty of opportunities [to talk about PTSD]. The problem is, if you speak up, you get held up at the [welcome center] and they just want to see their family."

"It can be 130 degrees outside and these guys are carrying 40 to 60 pound rucksacks on their backs, working 18 hour days and you will never hear them complain so when needs arise, they are hesitant to speak up," Mock said. "Soldiers, airmen, sailors and marines are all screened prior to leaving (combat zones), and again when they return to their home duty station so there are plenty of opportunities [to talk about PTSD]. The problem is, if you speak up, you get held up at the [welcome center] and they just want to see their family."

The pitfalls of PTSD seem to far outweigh the progress in combating it. The military is the business of men and women that thrive on helping each other. Unlike any office or administrative career, your team's life is dependent upon your actions.

There are no small accidents when you play at such high stakes. A soldier will find the will, courage and strength to be there for their team no matter the cost, making it extremely difficult to diagnose PTSD in people that do their best to avoid emotions. PTSD is also complicated because of the injuries that usually go with it.

"PTSD is hard to treat alone. There are combinations that always come with PTSD and usually have to be dealt with before we can start to work on the PTSD, such as: pain, sleeping disorders and even traumatic brain injury," Webb said.

"The Army has invested $250 million in identification of PTSD. We are trying very hard. Some have succeeded, other have fallen off the circuit and failed," Mock said. "There has been a lot of improvement. The nation has to step up and take responsibility for their vets."

"Please don't just ignore the people who stand up and say, help me," Sinclair said.

Zócalo Public Square is a non-profit organization that builds intellectual community and broadens access to civic discourse by presenting smart ideas in an open, welcoming, non-partisan, multi-ethnic space, according to their website. They host several events throughout the world to promote open forums for people to express their views.