“Either you’re a super Injun or you ain’t tellin’ me the truth. C’mon son, ain’t no shame in a warrior’s nightmares. Tell me about ‘em.” Cachora, just sat there in silence, staring at no one, focused only on the ship’s deck. Mates was slightly puzzled. Nightmares were common among combat veterans. They only seemed to matter in frequency and intensity. “Okay, let’s move on. How many times you been in firefights?”“Four times, sarge.”“What was the first?”Cachora told them about two skirmishes and a patrol with several engagements. The worst was the last. 
A Wound in the Mind
The Court-Martial of Lance Corporal Cachora, USMC
But Chase, who had not encountered great degrees of frustration in his young and privileged life, remained frustrated by Cachora, and he had little enthusiasm for going off in a new direction. “You know, Bob, for a couple of smart people we are just way, way over our heads with this Louis Nizer-Freud-PTSD stuff. Bob, who are we? Impostor lawyers? Impostor shrinks? I’m in way over my head. I’m frustrated, and I‘m tired of this, Bob.”“Frustrated? Tired? Tired? Did you say tired? Ned, you’re tired?” Disgustedly, “Shit! You don’t even know the meaning of the word! Tired.” Chase was taken aback by the intensity of Cannon’s criticism. Cannon was displaying that task-driven, intolerant side of himself that Chase had just reflected upon. Cannon had little sympathy for anyone who did not give full measure. He set a high standard for himself and lived by it, and he demanded the same from everyone else. But Cannon was also sufficiently aware to shrewdly and soothingly resume, “C’mon Ned. So our first approach didn’t pan out. You and I and the gunny can figure this out. If not us on this ship, who?” He jabbed his finger at Chase. “Ned, he’s a marine, a courageous marine, a legitimately decorated marine, a deprived minority American who didn’t get to go to prep school and college. We were given those opportunities to make a difference at moments like these. So what if our task has become a bit more problematic. We cannot let him down unless we die trying.”“Noblesse oblige, eh?”“No. Semper Fidelis!” Cannon asked Chase, “Where do you think we are vulnerable?”“The anti-psychiatry argument. You know. PTSD is for weaklings; psychotherapy is for the mentally weak. It’s perfect for Radano. He can turn our intellect against us and paint our case as one that might be expected from effete, East Coast, tender-minded liberals.”“But Radano is one of us?”“Yes. And he has a case to win, too.”“So there were a half million US psych casualties in World War II, the equivalent of 50 combat infantry divisions. Damn! That’s just overwhelming. How many in Korea, doctor?”“150-175,000 psych casualties versus 50-60,000 dead and 175,000 wounded.”“How many in Vietnam?”“I haven’t seen any definitive data, but it’s safe to assume they will be higher than the dead and wounded. We are now using a phrase Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD, for short, to describe many of these casualties.”“Doctor, is that a phrase that some soft-minded, egghead shrink in Cambridge or Berkeley invented for this war?” Cannon turned his back to Stein and looked right at Lt. Radano when he asked the question."Not at all. It is all very real in military medicine. PTSD qualifies for cash disability payments with Congress and the Veterans Administration."
