Military provides counseling to traumatized
The military does a phenomenal job of providing counseling for soldiers who might be traumatized after wartime deaths of those they serve with, said Dodge County Sheriff Todd Nehls, who recently spent a year in Afghanistan as a colonel in the Wisconsin National Guard.
http://www.wisinfo.com/thereporter/news/archive/local_22781603.shtml
By Patty Brandl
the reporter pbrandl@fdlreporter.com
The military does a phenomenal job of providing counseling for soldiers who might be traumatized after wartime deaths of those they serve with, said Dodge County Sheriff Todd Nehls, who recently spent a year in Afghanistan as a colonel in the Wisconsin National Guard.
Sgt. Andrew Wallace, of Oshkosh, and Spc. Mich-ael Wendling, of Mayville, died Monday when their convoy hit an improvised explosive device (IED) in southern Iraq.
Losing a friend to something like an IED shouldn’t happen, but it does, Nehls said. And despite the tragedy, soldiers must deal with it and move on.
When casualties occur, commanders usually arrange a standard ceremony right away so the soldiers can pay their respects.
“As soon as you go through the ceremony and say goodbye, it’s back to work as usual — because you have to,” he said. “It helps the healing to stay busy.”
Nehls said National Guard units tend to be closer knit than regular Army.
“You have Guard units where soldiers have been together five, 10 or 20 years,” he said. “Two high school classmates riding in the same vehicle — you don’t get that in the Army, and you don’t get that in the Marines. The Guard keeps them all together. That’s the way it should be — you fight together the way you train.”
Nehls said soldiers from the Fond du Lac and Ripon areas made up a large part of the 2nd Battalion, 127th Infantry Regiment.
“It was all local kids in that unit,” he said. “When something happens, it impacts our area in a major way.”
Nehls said there will soon be about 3,000 Wisconsin National Guard troops serving in the Middle East.
“We have two infantry battalions there right now,” he said. “One is getting ready to come home, and another is getting ready to go over there.”
Despite the deaths of their fellow soldiers, Wisconsin Guard members love what they’re doing, Nehls said.
“Even after a tragic event like this, you would be hard pressed to find any that would say, ‘Bring me home,’” he said. “These deaths are a constant reminder that we should not take freedom for granted. The price to remain free and keep our country free at times comes with a price. These soldiers paid that price for all of us. They are heroes. May they never be forgotten.”