The Vegas Voice 9-20

The Devil Made Me Do It
By: Chuck Dean / Vet 2 Vet
There is no excuse for bad behavior. If going
off to war becomes an excuse to act badly,
it’s an irresponsible drumbeat.
Bearing my soul, when I got back from ‘Nam I had no clue that my
deep dive into the drug culture, drinking like a fish, always toting a gun,
and multiple divorces had anything to do with my wartime experiences.
It never occurred to me that being exposed to life-threatening situations
in an unpopular war had anything to do with how I was behaving.
I was home! Vietnam was behind me! I just figured that I was just a
hedonistic scoundrel. The truth however has strange ways of surfacing.
It took someone from the outside to suggest that my war may have
something to do with how I was behaving. Bottom line: I was incapable
of seeing the forest from the trees.
Then, about the time I was thinking of doing harm to some jerk that
had pissed me off, a good Samaritan luckily showed up and ushered
me to the VA. The mental health staff helped me straighten things out.
I was shocked to find out how much the Vietnam experience had
defined what my life had become.
In all those years of being bad (not badass, just bad) I was unaware
of being affected by my past. In many ways I’m thankful that it was
that way because I didn’t make the mistake of blaming my condition
on some outside source - like a war.
However, I have known veterans who have acted out, and when
called on it, the first thing they do is use the war as an excuse. They are
convinced it exonerates their bad behavior.
Abusing a spouse, lashing out with uncontrollable temper, or
conducting oneself irresponsibly, and then declaring, “the war made
me do it” cannot serve as a license to continue such behavior.
Sadly, untold thousands of war veterans suffer with PTSD, and yes, it
can cause some terrible reactions in everyday life, but we do not have
to be enslaved to it. We can educate ourselves, and practice good coping
skills.
Making peace with our past is much better than continuing a fight
that already ended.
Chuck Dean served as an Army paratrooper in Vietnam and
through that experience was led to address the many transitional
issues veterans struggle with. He is the author of several important
books for veterans. All can be found on Amazon at: http://www.
amazon.com/author/chuckdeanbooks
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