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were the only two who treated the Napalmed Vietnamese kids in the burn<br />
unit simply as kids; the rest of the soldiers just couldn’t deal with the disfigurement<br />
and pain on display. I think this is why my orders were changed.<br />
This and the fact that my Dangerfield/Youngman/Hoffman routine from<br />
the weekend got the husband from that jaunt to send me to Valley Forge and<br />
Forest Glen in DC.<br />
So, I never saw combat. I worked as an Occupational Therapist for<br />
pieces of soldiers left walking. Later I got on as a counselor for an experimental<br />
unit trying to help men stay in and return to combat or go home and<br />
hopefully not blow the back of their heads off. We had about an 80% success<br />
rate. It was an exceptional unit. If you have ever seen movie “One Flew Over<br />
the Cuckoo’s Nest” you will have experienced what was typical of a psychiatric<br />
ward available to returning vets. Ours was different. There were three<br />
levels: one typical with medications and evaluations; the other two operated<br />
on a Skinner-based point system which allowed for more earned freedom.<br />
Want a cigarette? Cost ya 5 points. What’s a point? Well you get 3 for getting<br />
up and getting dressed, more for attending meetings etc., and wearing<br />
your uniform and acting like a living, breathing soldier. With the medication,<br />
the doctors, and our program, men did better faster than the Cuckoo’s<br />
Nest model. I felt useful.<br />
Still, there were attempts at suicide, none successful on the unit,<br />
but two were lost on leave. Some of my regular army friends would dismiss<br />
their loss as trivial, for the weak. On this unit I did try to understand. I quit<br />
being a piss-ant and bitching about the war, etc., and just try to stem the flow<br />
of decent, depressed, and absolutely crazy patients that passed through my<br />
care. In the end, we were successful enough to make my position a warrant<br />
officer’s job and trade our doctors and nurses with higher educated ones.<br />
I became the liaison to parade our crazies through the White House<br />
once a month to meet with [President Richard] Nixon and [Vice President<br />
Spiro] Agnew. Agnew in my opinion hated my attitude. He didn’t like to<br />
address my disturbed troops; maybe he considered them malingerers or they<br />
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