Combat Stress Is Not Cowardice

[thedrifter]

01-06-2004

Combat Stress Is Not Cowardice







By Ralf W. Zimmermann



The Army?s irrational handling of the legal case involving Staff Sgt. Georg-Andreas Pogany came as quite a surprise. After Army officials initially charged him with cowardice in November after an incident in Iraq, officials suddenly downgraded the case to the lesser charge of dereliction of duty.



Now it seems that the case might be dropped entirely ? possibly the best solution to end this soap opera.



Knowing quite a few Special Forces troops, I?ve always been impressed by their common sense and exemplary professionalism. SF troops are the tip of our spear and can?t afford to have slackers amongst them. So what went wrong with Pogany? Why was this NCO branded a coward, a charge worthy of the death penalty during wartime? Is someone who admits to being in a state of shock and confusion really a coward?



Looking at the case with some objectivity, it appears the problem doesn?t merely reside with a highly overburdened SF chain or a suspect malaria drug. The problem arrows point more likely to a crappy assignment and stabilization system. Just look at the facts.



Pogany was a former Navy reservist who joined the Army five years ago. A military intelligence NCO with a criminology degree, he could hardly be described as a full-blooded and qualified Special Operator or a hardened warfighter. Neither could it be said he had a predisposition for cowardice.



Pogany states that in September 2003, he got a call to cut short his leave and join a company of Special Forces in Iraq. He duly reported for duty. The day after he arrived in Iraq, he experienced a serious trauma during the five-hour horror trip to reach his base camp when another soldier dragged the shredded body of a dead Iraqi in front of him. At the sight of all the blood and guts, Pogany broke down and requested psychological help.



The next morning, while awaiting a mission assignment Pogany, who was shaking and throwing up, told his superior that he needed help. He was subsequently ordered to turn over his weapon, and a unit chaplain referred him to a Combat Stress Management Team, which filed a report describing Pogany as showing ?signs and symptoms consistent with those of a normal combat-stress reaction.?



His immediate superiors reacted with disgust for the newbie. He later said he was told, ?Get over it, or go home.? The next day, Pogany was moved to a larger post for counseling ? the right thing to do ? for the sergeant and for his unit. Sadly, his SF commander lost his patience a bit early and decided to ship Pogany back to the United States to stand trial under the serious ? and rarely imposed ? charge of cowardice.



The Pogany incident made me reflect on my old man?s World War II experience and leadership then. An eighteen-year-old tank gunner, he and his crew were involved in a highly intense firefight. The Russians had attacked in waves, my father and his crew firing into the masses with every available weapon. It wasn?t pretty.



Having brought the attack to a standstill, the Panzers counterattacked, rolling straight through piles of dead bodies. During the first maintenance halt after stabilizing the situation, the crew had to free the drive sprocket of wire, rocks and ? body parts.



My father later admitted to his company commander and tank commander that he had thrown up and had shaky knees. The commander nodded to him, indicating that he understood. He patted every crewman on the back and even helped to get the job finished. The commander then passed a bottle of brandy and his last cigarettes to his men.



The result: The Panther tank was soon battle ready and the crew fought on. My father completed over 100 engagements, was wounded several times and survived the war as a decorated tank commander and platoon leader ? the result of compassionate up-front and personal leadership.



Looking at the whole picture, it appears that Pogany wasn?t prepared for frontline deployment, especially with an elite unit. Instead of recommending a court-martial, the soldier?s chain of command should have arranged for treatment and then a transfer to another outfit. Another option could have been to grow him into his new outfit by giving him another chance during a less critical mission.



Sadly, the unit opted to immediately reject him.



The decision to drop the cowardice and dereliction of duty charges was on target. Pogany himself has declined to undergo an Article 15 hearing, pressing for a court-martial that he says is the only way he can be fully exonerated.



Although Pogany?s chain of command will probably feel the need to save face after all of the negative publicity, I believe the Army will make the right call in the case in the end.



What should be done? Stop the bureaucratic drill on all sides and complete Pogany?s treatment and counseling. Put the NCO back on orders to Iraq, Afghanistan or even better ? Bosnia. Let him prove himself in an assignment that best utilizes his talents. After all, he is fluent in Hungarian and German ? not Arabic!



The lesson for the Army as a whole is obvious: Combat proves that being all you can be isn?t as easy as the slogan sounds. At minimum, the Army should ensure that all soldiers being sent to a war zone such as Iraq have adequate indoctrination and training to prepare them for the ?shock and awe? of such gory sights. The Army should also do a better job at testing and classifying people for the right assignments, before ending up with superfluous legal cases like this one.



Contributing Editor Lt. Col. (U.S. Army, ret.) Ralf W. Zimmermann is a decorated Desert Storm veteran and former tank battalion commander. Since his retirement, his columns have regularly appeared in Army Times and other publications. His recent novel, ?Brotherhood of Iron,? deals with the German soldier in World War II. It is directly available from www.iUniverse.com and through most major book dealers. Zimm can be reached at r6zimm@earthlink.net or via his website at www.home.earthlink.net/~r6zimm.

http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/...085072008913187


Sempers,

Roger

[BLUEHAWK]

Some years ago I read a long book about WWII, written by a lifer looking back on his expriences as a rifleman, eventually NCO too of course.

He went to great lengths close to the front of his book to explain how men react to first combat, close combat, being under fire the first time or three, constant fire and the like... apparently not many come away from that experience with all or certain bodily fluids where they were prior to the onset.

[the humper]

And under certain times, certain conditions, certain circumstances, EVERYBODY, will have a point, where it will happen. I've seen it happen to folks, that initially, you would have thought, it would never happen. And they certainly were not cowards, or any other type description one could think of!!!!!! They just reached the end of their emotional string!!!!!!!!
SF
NC

[SEATJERKER]

...and or only time one sees the end result of combat, or the discharge of a weapon, the affects weigh different with everyone,...

...I can only speak from mine,...

... to have body fluids from another human being "transfered" to your face, and torso unexpectedly doesn't set right, it is a feeling that never goes away,...

...

[DMZ-LT]

Big Ed carried my radio and had shown courage in many fights. One day in a pretty good fire fight Big Ed started digging a hole and handed me the radio and got in the hole. It was not a stationary fight. I told him to get out and come with us , we needed him. He said no. I told him it was an order , he said no. I told him if he didn't get out now I was going to shoot him in his #*# hole . He said go ahead. I left him and carried the radio all day. At the end of the day, after the fighting had stopped , he came back to the platoon and held his hand out to me. I gave him the radio back. No one ever said a word about it and he was later wounded in another fight and sent home. Everybody has a breaking point , everybody

[the humper]

From the magazine "Military". It's from "Fighting Fear" by John W. Appel, M.D.. The person primarily responsible for the Armys' CIB.
"The sense of danger hit me at once, and in my report I said that the experience of front line combat duty could no more be comprehended by one who had not had it than could the experience of sexual intercourse."
Truer words were never spoken!!!
SF
NC