To Samuel Montalbano, it’s a sacred thing.
“I don’t feel like talking about it to a lot of people,” he said of his tour of duty in Iraq.
Staying quiet is largely self-protection for Montalbano and other military personnel, said Cameron Elspeth Ritchie, a doctor and Army colonel.
“When you’re with people who haven’t been there, who think the most important thing is what you’re going to have for lunch that day and you’ve been worried about whether you’re going to make it to lunch that day, whether you’ll be alive that long, whether your buddies will be there,” it’s hard to reintegrate back into normal life, Ritchie said.
Vietnam veteran John L. McCarty agreed, saying, “Society expects us to kill, kill, destroy, then come home and change clothes and [act] like it never happened.”
Offering insight
It’s because of soldiers like McCarty and Montalbano that the Alabama-based ministry Crosswinds Foundation recently produced “Invisible Scars: Hope for Soldiers With Hidden Wounds,” an hour-long documentary film addressing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
The film interviews people like Ritchie, Montalbano and McCarty and offers insight into PTSD’s roots, expressions and treatment.
It’s a big effort to reach out to a hurting population, and it all started with a simple question, said Bob Waldrep, president and founder of Crosswinds.
“I asked one of my coworkers who had served as a chaplain in the Middle East, ‘What’s it like to be over there?’ And instead of telling me what it was like there, he told me a story about how the first time he heard thunder back at home, he thought he was under a mortar attack,” Waldrep said. “He said, ‘I wasn’t even outside the walls. Imagine how much more it would impact the ones who were.’”
It was a story Waldrep said he couldn’t shake.
So in 2013, Crosswinds started a media division to address the need. They started working toward a PTSD-related film — as best they could tell, the first of its kind. And soon they realized that they wouldn’t sell it — they’d just give it away as fast and furiously as they could to get it into the hands of as many veterans as possible.
In Alabama alone there are 4,000 veterans.
“Churches have veterans. They encounter veterans. And veterans know other veterans,” said Waldrep, who served as executive producer of the film. “It’s our duty and obligation as Christians to help these guys. People needed to see this. Families needed to understand. The message is too precious.”
Often when soldiers come back, they withdraw and self medicate, he said.
“Marriages dissolve. Families dissolve. That’s why we have such a large contingency of veterans on the street,” Waldrep said. “We need to get them on their feet and encourage them.”
A number of state Baptist organizations have stepped up to serve as distributors of the film, including Shelby, Autauga, North Jefferson and Bessemer Baptist associations and North Valley Church, Odenville; Eden Westside Baptist Church, Pell City; and the Widows Might Ministry of Liberty Baptist Church, Chelsea.
Waldrep encouraged other churches, associations and individuals to consider distributing the film.
He and others at Crosswinds also have distributed it at events near military bases and at Veterans Day parades.
Already they’ve had an overwhelming response, with a number of veterans saying the film made them ready to talk about their experiences with someone else for the very first time. The film has been so well received that Crosswinds is already in production for a second film, “Honoring the Code,” aimed at helping soldiers work through moral injury and to be released early 2016.
Waldrep said he’s glad to get the message of healing in the hands of veterans, and he just wishes it could’ve been done sooner. Even his father could’ve benefitted from the message, he said.
‘Hope is available’
“Through the process (of producing ‘Invisible Scars’) I realized my own father suffered with PTSD. His experiences in WWII had clearly left their own scars,” Waldrep said. “But the truth is they weren’t exactly invisible. They could be seen in the nightmares that plagued his sleep, in the attitude with which he faced the world and in the alcohol which offered temporary relief. I am convinced his life would have been different if someone could have shared something like ‘Invisible Scars’ with him.”
Linwood Bragan, executive director of Capstand Council for Policy and Ethics, said as more people have familiarized themselves with PTSD, the more healing they’ve seen happen.
“Hope is available. Healing is available. Our veterans can be restored and reintegrated back into society fully and completely,” said Bragan, who is interviewed in “Invisible Scars.”
_____________________________________________
Steps toward working through PTSD
1. Seek out a “battle buddy” — someone who has been in combat — and share your story. It is incredibly therapeutic to sit with others who share a common experience and listen to one another’s stories.
2. Learn more about mental trauma associated with military service. Learn the symptoms or identifiers related to PTSD and moral injury. The “Invisible Scars” film is one resource for this, but there also are books on the subject as well as information available on the Internet.
3. Don’t be afraid to seek professional help. (If available, a military chaplain is a great place to start in getting help through the process.) Even though your training may tell you to push through the pain, you would certainly seek help for a physical injury such as an arm broken in combat. Likewise it is okay to seek help for mental or emotional trauma.
4. Involve your family in the healing process. PTSD and moral injury affect not only the soldier but the family as well. Let your family know what you are going through. Though you may not want to share specific details regarding what you saw and experienced in war, it is important to try and help them understand how these things have affected you.
5. Find something positive in which to invest the skills and training you received while serving in the military. It is often hard for veterans to find meaningful employment when returning from deployment. That does not mean you do not have anything to offer.
6. Don’t ever give up. You are still a warrior. As one soldier stated, “Don’t ever quit. Don’t ever surrender. And if they didn’t kill you over there, don’t let them kill you over here.” (Data released by the Veterans Administration indicates 22 veterans a day take their own lives.)
For more information, visit invisiblescarsmovie.com. For more information on ‘Honoring the Code,’ visit honoringthecode.com.
Share with others: