She Survived Iraq -- Then Shot Herself at Home

By Greg Mitchell

Published: November 13, 2006 12:10 PM ET

NEW YORK Her name doesn't show on any official list of American military deaths in the Iraq war, by hostile or non-hostile fire, who died in that country or in hospitals in Europe or back home in the USA. But Iraq killed her just as certainly.

She is Jeanne "Linda" Michel, a Navy medic. She came home last month to her husband and three kids (ages 11, 5, and 4), delighted to be back in her suburban home of Clifton Park in upstate New York. Michel, 33, would be discharged from the Navy in a few weeks, finishing her five years of duty.

Two weeks after she got home, she shot and killed herself.

"She had come through a lot and she had always risen to challenges," her husband, Frantz Michel, who has also served in Iraq, lamented last week. Now he asks why the Navy didn't do more to help her.

Michel's story has now been probed by reporter Kate Gurnett in today's Albany Times-Union. It's headlined, "A casualty far from the battlefield."

And yet, in many ways, not far at all.

Why did it happen? "Like thousands of others returning from Iraq, her mental state was fractured," Gurnett explains. "And it went untreated. Within two weeks, Linda Michel would become a private casualty of war. Re-entry into the world of peace can be harder than deployment, experts say. Picking up where you left off doesn't just happen. ...

"Women experience stronger forms of post-traumatic stress disorder and have higher PTSD rates, experts say. In response, the Veterans Affairs Department launched a $6 million study of female veterans.
Seeking treatment -- seen by some as a weakness -- may be even tougher for women, who still feel the need to prove themselves to men in military service."

In fact, this past August, three veterans in New York's Adirondack region committed suicide within three weeks, according to Helena Davis, deputy director of the Mental Health Association in New York.

Michel has served under extremely stressful conditions at Camp Bucca in southern Iraq, a U.S-run prison where guards shot four inmates dead in a 2005 riot -- and an episode of female mudwrestling drew headlines. Michel was treated for depression and prescribed Paxil, but they took her off that medicine when she returned home. Her husband was not informed.

"I just wish the Navy would have done some more follow-up, instead of just letting her come home," Frantz, who is on the division staff of the Army National Guard, told the reporter. "If somebody needs Paxil in a combat zone, then that's not the place for them to be. You either send them to a hospital or you send them home and then make sure that the family members know and that they get follow-up care."

He has pressed the Navy for answers: "Why wasn't she sent to a facility to resolve the issues? Not keep her in Iraq and give her some antidepressant medication and then just send her home. So those are the answers that I don't have. Which makes me a little angry because I know what is supposed to occur."

The Times Union carried another lengthy story on Sunday, by Dennis Yusko, on post-traumatic stress syndome (PTSD) and Iraq veterans. "The number of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans getting treatment for PTSD at VA hospitals and counseling centers increased 87 percent from September 2005 to June 2006 -- to 38,144, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs," Yusko revealed.

"At least 30 percent of those who fought in Iraq or Afghanistan are now diagnosed with PTSD, up from 16 percent to 18 percent in 2004, said Charlie Kennedy, PTSD program director and lead psychologist at the Stratton Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Of the 400 Capital Region vets in the program, 81 served in Iraq or Afghanistan, Kennedy said, and that number is growing. 'This kind of warfare is devastating,' Kennedy said. 'You don't know who is your friend and who is your enemy.'"

***

Related E&P columns by Greg Mitchell:

-- Revealed: U.S. Soldier Killed Herself After Objecting to Interrogation Techniques

-- A Suicide in Iraq -- Part II

What a Shame, and this is just a start of
stories like this. Our Goverment doesn't
do any where enough to treat for this. It's
just not a priority. Imagine all the other
families that will suffer from PTSD we vets
always hurt the ones we love. This will be
generational and have effects on us for years
We can only pray for there relief.

The author isn't a psychiatrist or a mental health expert. He's just drawing conclusions to suit his agenda. "Blame it all on Iraq."

This is a prime example of how the rabid leftists will take a tragic story where not all the details are known, yet they use it as their soap box to stand on in order to further their agenda. It is sad that the woman didn't get all that she needed in order to get beyond her depression, yet it's pathetic to see the opponents of the war use it as political fodder for their cause.

This article proves merely the fact that veterans from the Iraqi theater suffer like all other theaters of war throughout history. There are suicidal people in all walks of society including in the military. Why is it that focus is placed on the suicides? What about the people who served in the very same place that Michel did, yet didn't commit suicide?

I read this in the article:

Quote:

"Women experience stronger forms of post-traumatic stress disorder and have higher PTSD rates, experts say. In response, the Veterans Affairs Department launched a $6 million study of female veterans. Seeking treatment -- seen by some as a weakness -- may be even tougher for women, who still feel the need to prove themselves to men in military service."

So are we to draw from this that the left, who lobbied for women's equality, now want women out of combat roles?

What about the makers of PAXIL? Why not blame them? Answer: No, not yet anyway. It doesn't further our political agenda to make points about a woman's suicide in a newspaper article. Maybe later when fewer people are paying attention.

Hey I know, if a veteran of Iraq wins the lottery, can we then say Iraq was the mitigating factor?

If an Iraqi vet gets involved in a car accident in Chicago tomorrow, should we blame that on PTSD as well?

Let's all see if we can blame Iraq for all our woes.

__________________
"The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left."
Ecclesiastes 10:2 (NIV)

I would venture to say that returning soldiers and vertually anyone who had experienced a major period of major stress may have done something tragic to themselves. Is that the total fault of a war experience or is it that the person was not stable anyway.

Let's blame the war and the military that is much easier than searching for the truth isn't it!!!!!

__________________
"I was born at night, but it was not last night night"

If you want to see something truly pathetic and evil-----examine the people in Iraq and the Middle East who strap bombs to themselves and take out a whole lot of women and children with them when they blow themselves to bits.

__________________
"This is a time for a national imperative not to fail in Iraq." Condoleeza Rice, January 11, 2007

and I don't disagree, then what are we doing there? Are we going to kill them before they can blow themselves and others up? Or are we going to make Iraq such a wonderful place that no one will want to blow themselves up?

__________________
the memories of a man in his old age
are the deeds of a man in his prime

roger waters

This thread did not have a link and the author merely copy/pasted the article without adding his own comment.

For those reasons, I am locking it. In the future, threads like this will be deleted.

__________________
Order without liberty and liberty without order are equally destructive. - Theodore Roosevelt