4 - The Black Vault

THE BDM CORrORATiON
Cross. 13/ Other conflicts of this pe.'iod--the Franco-Prussian, Spanish-
American, and Boer Wars--had few combat-streFs casualties and thus did not
genperate the same demand frpyhaicassistance as did the Russo- |
Japanese War. 14/
8ý the First World War all major armies had psychiatric services as k
part of their medical corps.
Commonly observed str:ess symptoms included:
... clear manifestations of terror, being tr•mulous and
over respon3ive to the slightest s;timulation. Others
were in confused states, often hav'ing been found aimlessly
wandering around the battlefront oblivious to
the dangers of the environment. Still others present
with paralysis or sensory disturbances and some were
inexplicably comatose. 15/
Observers divided these patients into two categories: those who exhibited
these symptoms as a result of front-line duty and those whose bveakdown
could not be linked directly to cznbat. The first category was considered
to be suffering from an organic disease.16/
In a h-ar characterized by re'.ntlss and heavy bombardment
of both sides, the reasonable assumption was made
that a soldier's brain became chronically concussed by
his proximity to exploding shells, with multiple
peteciiial hemorrhages occurring in the cerebrumi. This
i "shell ubsequent shock. emotional breakdown 4as justifiable labeled
"17/
Patients in the second category were at first considered to be cowards, but
as the war drew to a close, psychiatrists became increasingly aware that
this was not the case--that psychic stress alone coeld cause symptoms as
mild or as severe as any observed on the front lines.
theory itself was
oriented factors.
Indeed, the crganis
generally discarded in favor of more psychologically
Despite knowledge of combat stress gained from analysis cf American
troops in the Civil War and World War I, the US Army entered the second
World War poorly prepared to handle psychiatric casualties. Over 500,000
troops were uischarged for psychiatric reasons during World War II and, at
one point, psychiatric casualties were leaving the military faster than
7-4
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