Defense Articles

INTRODUCTION The United States entered Iraq in March 2003 in order to oust Saddam Hussein and bring order to the country after his removal. Insurgents poured into the country to wage warfare against the American military. The insurgents continue to learn American military tactics and utilize small firefights and other rudimentary tools to exploit guerilla tactics against American and Iraqi forces. In December 2005, the Iraqi people freely elected a government to represent them. Unfortunately, the individual political blocs (the Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds) have been unable to garner enough support among them to bring the permanent government into reality. The competition between the three is intense, for none of the three trust each other. This distrust stems from the prior regime and is also applicable to military issues as well.

This political disagreement has given a perceived carte blanche to the continued insurgent activities. The insurgents will continue their activities in the hopes of causing enough chaos that the Iraqi government is kept in perpetual infancy for a lengthened amount of time. One aspect that can thwart the insurgents is the implementation of a plan that will shift the insurgents’ activities and perhaps turn the tables on them. This plan must be formulated in order to get the Iraqi government established; a transitional time period needs to exist in order for the American military to leave; and American/Iraqi forces have to be able to leave the security of the country in capable hands. When faced with the inevitable implementation of the Iraqi government taking full power, the insurgents may taper their activities. The only way we can ensure this is the full training and gained confidence of the Iraqi military.

What will be discussed is not new. The watchword for Iraqi progress has to be cooperation. Without it, the country has no impetus to propel it forward. Iraq’s desire to rejoin the international community on the world stage is extremely important. There are several personalities/groups that would like to stop this from occurring. The American military is being asked to do humanitarian care at the same time that they are fighting the insurgents. This can cause confusion between the two paradigms: to find and detain the enemy and providing the means for Iraq to rebuild itself. If not explained to the personnel on the ground, this can be a rather bewildering notion. This article was undertaken with the intent of spurring debate on the topic of possible interaction and integration of the military with an eventual economic success story. Few ever considered in the modern day that the U.S. military would be involved in the re-emergence of a new society that will shift from a primarily agrarian country to one that may assert some influence on the Middle East in the future. This dialogue will serve as an avenue for military and political leaders to ponder the Iraq question.

LITERATURE REVIEW In searching through previously published articles, research found that no one had looked at the transition of the government to permanence through a sociological elite thought process. It had been looked at from a strictly Islamic view. There was no comparison of the three theories about to be presented.

This article will primarily build upon the sociological theories of C. Wright Mills, the municipal “growth machine” theory of Harvey Molotch, and the Urban Regime Theory advocated by Clarence Stone. These theories are based on local U.S. municipal research and are being expanded and exported to a foreign country. These theories keyed with financial growth can be the avenue to nation rebuilding. The theories will then expand on an economic development plan that will explore the real possibilities that can place the Iraqi people in an advantageous position using the three aforementioned individual’s theories. We will attempt to explore the real possibilities of a fiscal expansion plan that can thrust the country into becoming a successful money-making entity.

To begin with, we have to explore the hypothesis advocated by C. Wright Mills concerning political elites in small, medium and large cities. Political elites are those individuals who have a vested interest in the community and themselves. These persons often are the individual business leaders, the land owners, and the “absentee elites,” that is, persons who may own property in a certain city but live elsewhere. We also cannot forget the significance of the religious mullahs (clergymen) as well. The local populaces who do not fall in these categories have little influence on the decision-making process.

All of these leaders tend to pull their clout together for the greater good of the city, at least in speculation. There are many competing interests within the country. These competing interests are no different than any other country in the world. One major issue that we are encountering is the numerous political parties jockeying for control of the government. This is not seen as a problem in Iraq. Competition among the groups allows discussion, debate, and consensus to occur. This allowance of ideas is perhaps one of the greatest freedoms the Iraqi people gained. In actuality, one can see that the people are finally able to voice their opinions without fear of retribution. The exchange of ideas was not a common occurrence within the country prior to U.S. involvement. The insurgents certainly hope that they can stop the political process from taking place through the use of fear. Over time, the Iraqi people will tire of this fear tactic. It is hoped that the new Iraqi military will keep the peace and displace the insurgents from utilizing this approach.

Sociologist Harvey Molotch, a New York University professor, extended the work of Mills by describing the theory of “growth machines” on the local level in the United States. These “growth machines” are utilized to help bring business and commerce to the local area. By consolidating the power base of the local elites, business and other commerce find an atmosphere of openness that permeates the surrounding areas. This consolidation of the power bases allows the elites to meet and consider the means to bring and sustain growth to the area. There are several ways to do this, but the obvious one remains.

Urban Regime Theory is considered the one social theory to explain how local politics are handled. It is derived from the work of Clarence Stone, a University of Maryland professor emeritus, that states that the two important tenets of this theory are the power that emanates from the elected body as the structure and the goals it desires to attain are understood. We have to consider the cooperation between the standing government and the private interests of others. Once this spirit of cooperation exists, the country will progress.

The maintenance regime that is currently in place is considered one that does little but maintains the status quo. Let us recollect that there was no status quo to begin with. To maintain what used to be in existence would return the country to political and world exclusion. The theory has a continuum, but that will not be discussed at this time. We have to allow the current regime theory to be in place for some time before there is a shift along the scale. There is a perception that the business leaders abdicate their responsibilities in this theory, and allow the national government to determine its course. This seems highly unlikely considering that taxes i.e. their hard earned money is not being overseen. Business leaders, whether they are in Dallas or Baghdad, seem to look after their money well.

APPLICATION The national elites (politicians, businessmen, religious men, and the absentees) realize that the country needs structure to continue moving forward. Cooperation must be the watchword for these individuals. So far, the infighting among these groups has gained considerable press and must be stopped to gain recognition from the international community. Once the world views the seriousness of the Iraqi government, then there will be a considerable shift in mindset. Using the “growth machine” theory, it is fairly obvious that the control of the big cities, municipalities, and the whole nation must take place so that commerce can thrive. If not, there will be continued negative economic growth due to lack of engagement by those in power. The power structure must seek cooperation and cohesiveness so that the national plan can be implemented.

As seen in the United States, employment centers tend to be located in the municipal areas. Realizing this, the infrastructure must be rebuilt in order to get the economic engine running. With the merchants’ spending money, then the local community will survive. New businesses will be located in an area that is conducive to them.

Enforcement of the new constitution is necessary for this cooperation to occur. For example, the country has to make the education plank of its constitution a concrete reality. The educational institutions must start producing the teachers, engineers, and nurses that the country needs. It has to make people employable and earning a fair wage in order for the local economy to thrive. In addition, the elites have to connect with the outsiders (those who left Iraq for safety) and bring them back so that they can share their educational and financial expertise. If there is to be a viable work force, we have to gain control of the national streets and alleys in order to allow commerce to happen. If this does not occur, then the business concept that we are talking about will not occur anytime soon. The financial payoff is obvious: take command of the surrounding areas and the business will come.

International business needs to have a viable reason to expand their businesses in Iraq. The elite in power will attempt to woo them. The government needs to show that there would be financial rewards for them to enter the country. International business would also need a viable and trained local workforce that could be hired so that they could commence business transactions within Iraq.

Using the Urban Regime Theory one begins to understand that the Iraqi government has to cooperate with the local elites in order to implement change. Once the cooperative pact is in place, then the collegiality between the two (government and the business, plus the religious leaders) can begin. Collaboration between all the parties involved only brings progress and stability.

The most important thing in regards to this theory is to maintain what the Iraqis have gained. It is hard to fathom, but the Iraqi people only went to the polls for the first time in January 2005. The face of those first-time voters will not be forgotten soon. Having been in the country when these elections occurred, it was amazing what effect the election process had on the Iraqi people. Many Iraqi translators who worked on a Forward Operating Base showed the military personnel their right thumb with the purple mark that showed they had voted. It was remarkable to note that many had never voted before in their lives. We will continue to rejoice in the fruits of the labors of all involved.

CONCLUSION The Iraqi people realize what they ultimately want—a return of their country. It is preferable that there be no interference from the international community. Whether or not this is feasible depends largely on the military aspect of the new government. The Iraqi government has to make security the priority if they wish to implement the plans being discussed. Any trade or industry that desires to start a business within the confines of the country has to make significant investments in order to produce goods. This will not occur without a sense of security. There will be no investment from outside countries until this occurs.

It is important to eradicate the insurgent activity so that the commonplace actions of life can begin once again. There is no recommendation that the Iraqi government capitulate to the insurgents. The populace of Iraq needs to be supported in their endeavors. It already appears that this is occurring. The nation is growing weary of the continued violence and the bloodshed. It is just a question of eliminating the insurgents from the periphery. We have to recall that there will be a continual learning curve with regards to the government. This educational process is no different than any other country that has recently been allowed to make choices for itself. It may be painful for some, but in the end it will all be worth the effort.

Apparently North Korea has detonated a plutonium nuclear bomb underground as a test in northern North Korea. Many nations in the region are quite worried about the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Japan has already set up sanctions as an economic penalty for North Korea. China has given strong language and is also considering economic sanctions. The six party talks between many nations to prevent North Korea from manufacturing nuclear weapons to export them, seem to have failed.

North Korea says that the nuclear tests are so they can have defense of nuclear weapons in case the United States of America tries to invade. This of course is political rhetoric and they are going one step further, as the leader of North Korea is now stating that if the United States continues to harass them then they will consider that an act of war. Since when is harassments, an act of war? After all the United States has been harassed by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, the President of Iran and several other nations such as Cuba.

We do not consider harassment an act of war, nor do we consider political maneuvering to prevent the escalation and proliferation of nuclear weapons to be an act of war, that is an act of World Peace. With strong talk like that from North Korea and without the definition clearly stated as to what harassment is, one could assume that the leader of North Korea has in fact declared war on the United States of America because it considers us to be harassing them.

However one should consider that if North Korea continues to build nuclear weapons and export them to other nations such as Iran, which will give these WMD to the international terrorist organizations that they sponsor; then we must do something and if we cannot, use diplomacy to stop such things, as it will be considered an act of war, because it will be labeled harassment; then obviously we are already at war with North Korea. That is truly unfortunate indeed, as we do not need any more wars in the World right now. Please consider this in 2006.

We all know that there are international terrorist cells in the United States and they plan on doing harm to American citizens. There has been talk of using bio-weapons in our nation’s food supply and or our water supply. This is a troubling thought and it surely would cause the United States government to come down so hard on the terrorists that it would in their career forever.

Nevertheless, it is a therefore important to contain this risk and audit the safety of our freshwater supplies. Specifically we need to look at our canals, tanks and reservoirs.

One simple strategy for large storage water tanks would be to have a secondary containment ditch around the tanks, which could also act as a barrier so trucks that might have a truck bomb on them could not get past or even close to the tanks. This is a similar strategy that is often used at oil refineries and other oil asset facilities.

It makes sense to have secondary containment for water storage in case a tank leaks and that will prevent flooding. Combining the issue of an antiterrorist barrier and a secondary containment water storage system makes a lot of sense.

It would not be much more difficult to implement than making a hole or ditch around the water tank with vertical walls. Think of a moat around a castle and pretty much you understand how something like this might work. We must protect our water supplies, as they are considered a soft target by our enemies. Obviously this would not be their first choice of targets due to the fact that in the United States there are so many different redundancies for water supply.

Indeed, it makes sense to strengthen the security of such systems and to be on the lookout for ways that international terrorists might exploit our fresh water supplies. It would also make sense to secure chlorine tanks and at our sewer treatment plants with a similar system to prevent anything from getting too close. Please consider this in 2006.

Introduction

The Vietnam War and the plight of veterans in USA have generated much media interest because of its comprehensibility, easy accessibility, and since it added public interest to disasters of great magnitude. For many, PTSD places responsibility for their suffering on factors outside themselves, factors over which they often had neither responsibility nor control (Friedman, 2000) thus providing an explanatory model. Gersons and Carlier (1992) looking at the history of PTSD, commented that the introduction of the new diagnosis of PTSD was seen and felt to be in recognition of the psychological consequences of war, especially as experienced by Vietnam veterans. After the description of PTSD in the 1980, there was a major increase in research interest in PTSD (Blake, Albano, & Keane, 1992) with majority of them being on victims of war or sexual violence.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

PTSD is a natural emotional reaction to a deeply shocking and disturbing experience. It is a normal reaction to an abnormal situation. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is defined in DSM-IV, the fourth edition of the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. For a doctor or mental health professional to be able to make a diagnosis, the condition must be defined in DSM-IV or its international equivalent, the World Health Organization’s ICD-10. The focus of the DSM-IV (American Psychiatric Association, 1994) definition of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is a single life-threatening event or threat to integrity. However, the symptoms of traumatic stress also arise from an accumulation of small incidents rather than one major incident.

History of PTSD

PTSD is considered to be the renaming or the synthesis of an age-old condition. The psychological effect of exposure to combat-related traumatic events, then called physioneurosis was first scientifically studied in 1941 by A. Kardiner (Kolb, 1993). Research interest in this area peaked during and after the world wars. Keiser’s (1968) book The Traumatic Neurosis describes specific problems following trauma supporting the existence of PTSD prior to the Vietnam War. The studies done among survivors of World War II death & prisoner of war (PoW) camps, and the Vietnam War accelerated the growth of studies related to PTSD among military personnel.

In 1968, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (2nd ed., DSM-II; American Psychiatric Association, 1968, p.49) mentioned about the effects of traumatic stress as ‘fear associated with military combat and manifested by trembling, running, and hiding’. In 1969, the Manual of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases, Injuries, and Causes of Death (8th ed.; ICD-8; World Health Organization, 1969, p.158) referred to condition as ‘combat fatigue’. Common patterns in the psychological sequel of women who had been sexually assaulted, termed as rape trauma syndrome, and combat related trauma contributed to a set of cluster of symptoms that represented PTSD.

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was introduced in ICD in its 9th edition, in 1978, and in DSM in its 3rd edition, in 1980. In 1994, the acute short-term effects of exposure to a traumatic event were introduced in DSM-IV as acute stress disorder (ASD).

Measures of PTSD

I. Structured Clinical Interviews

The Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R (SCID; Spitzer, Williams, Gibbon & First, 1990) has been the interview most frequently used to date to evaluate the presence or absence of PTSD. The SCID provides a comprehensive evaluation of Axis I and Axis II diagnoses. The PTSD module is concise and relatively easy to administer and score, while addressing the major diagnostic features of the disorder. Kulka et al. (1990) found a kappa of .93 when a second clinician listened to audiotapes of the target interview and then made independent diagnoses. McFall et al. (1990) reported 100 percent diagnostic reliability between two clinicians who completed independent SCIDs on ten subjects. Keane, Kolb and Thomas (1988) observed a kappa of .68 for PTSD SCID diagnoses derived from two independent clinicians who individually interviewed the same patients (N = 37). Kulka et al. (1990) also found the SCID diagnosis to be strongly correlated with other indices of PTSD (i.e., the Mississippi Scale, the Impact of Event Scale, the PK-Scale of the MMPI). These results suggest that the PTSD module of the SCID is a measure with respectable reliability and validity. The limitation of this instrument is that it yields only dichotomous information about each symptom and therefore severity of disorder and changes in symptom level cannot be easily detected.

The Diagnostic Interview Scale (DIS-NIMH) is a highly structured interview that correlated highly with other known measures of PTSD (Watson et al., 1991) but when used in a community sample, where the base rate of PTSD was low, the DIS performed poorly, with estimates of .23 for sensitivity and .28 for kappa (Kulka et al. 1991).

The PTSD-Interview by Watson et al. (1991) yields both dichotomous and continuous scores, thus addressing some of the limitations of the SCID and DIS. Reports of high test-retest reliability (.95), internal stability (alpha = .92), sensitivity (.89), specificity (.94), and kappa (.82) recommend this instrument for use in diagnosing PTSD. Compared to other clinical instruments, this instrument asks the subjects to make their own rating of symptom severity, thereby minimizing the role of the experienced clinician in the diagnostic process.

The Structured Interview for PTSD (SI-PTSD) (Davidson et al.1989) has continuous and dichotomous symptoms ratings. High test-retest reliability (.71), inter-rater reliability (.97 - .99) and perfect diagnostic agreement (N = 34) have been reported. Utility analyses have revealed sensitivity of .96, specificity of .80, and a kappa of .79 when compared to the SCID.

The Clinician Administered PTSD Scale (Blake et al., 1990) is available in both lifetime and current versions. The CAPS contains 17 diagnostic symptoms of PTSD, its 8 associated features, symptom severity measures in terms of frequency & intensity, indices of impairment in social and occupational functioning, and an assessment of validity of patient responses. The CAPS also provides continuous and dichotomous scores to suit the needs of the investigator/ clinician. Sound psychometric properties in terms of reliability and validity have been reported (Weathers, 1992).

II. Self-report scales

The PK-Scale of the MMPI (Keane et al., 1984) consists of 49 items that differentiated PTSD from non-PTSD patients in both a test sample and a cross-validation sample of veterans. Eighty-two percent of 200 subjects were correctly classified using a cut-off score of 30. Subsequent studies have not found the same diagnostic hit rate. The performance of PK in the NVVRS (Kulka et al., 1991) indicates that the MMPI-2 (Lyons and Keane, 1992) modifications have not altered the general interrelationship of PK with other measures of PTSD.

The Mississippi Scale (Keane, Caddell & Taylor, 1988) is available in both combat and civilian versions. It is a 35 item instrument that has high internal consistency (alpha = .94), test-retest reliability (.97), sensitivity (.93), and specificity (.89). This instrument performed effectively in both clinical settings (e.g., McFall, Smith, Roszell et al., 1990) and in field/community settings (e.g., Kulka et al., 1991), indicating its general utility for measuring PTSD across settings and for different purposes (e.g., research or clinical).

Impact of Event Scale (Horowitz, Wilner & Alvarez, 1979) focuses upon the assessment of intrusions and avoidant/numbing responses. IES is the single most widely used instrument for assessing the psychological consequences of exposure to traumatic events. The scale has good internal consistency (.78 for intrusion, .82 for avoidance) and test-retest reliability (.89 for intrusion, .79 for avoidance). Recent studies have found the IES to correlate well with other indices of PTSD. The Impact of events scale-Revised (IES-R) (Weiss and Marmer, 1997) to parallel the DSM-IV criteria for PTSD, is also self-report measure designed to assess current subjective distress for any specific life event. The three sub scales measures, avoidance (the tendency to avoid thoughts or reminders about the incident), intrusion (difficulty in staying asleep, dissociative-like re-experiencing of when experiencing true flash-back), and hyper arousal (feeling irritated, angry, difficulty in getting sleep). In addition to the 3 subscale scores, IES-R gives an overall impact of events score (sum of the 3 subscales) also.

PTSD scale for the SCL-90 derived by Saunders et al. (1990) has 28-items that best discriminated women with crime-related PTSD from non-cases. Using the Diagnostic Interview Scale (DIS) as criterion, this scale obtained good sensitivity (.75) and high specificity (.90).

The Penn Inventory (Hammarberg, 1992) was developed and validated with both combat veterans and trauma-exposed non-veterans. This 26-item instrument has high internal consistency (alpha = .94), and test-retest reliability (.96). Sensitivity was found to be .90 and specificity was 1.0 among a sample of 83 veterans, and in a sample of disaster survivors sensitivity was 0.94 and specificity of 1.0.

Other self-report measures of PTSD include, Modified PTSD Scale (MPSS-SR) (Falsetti et al., 1993), Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Diagnostic Scale (PDS) (Foa, 1995), and Davidson Trauma Scale (DTS) (1997).

III. Psycho-physiological assessment of PTSD

Exposure to cues of a traumatic event provoked a systematic physiological response across several measurement domains (e.g., heart rate, skin conductance, EMG, and blood pressure). Blanchard et al. (1982) found that the heart rate response could correctly classify 95.5 percent of the combined sample of 11 male Vietnam veterans suffering from PTSD and 11 non-veteran controls. Blanchard et al. (1982) and Malloy et al. (1983) found that this reactivity predicts the PTSD diagnosis while using auditory and audiovisual cues. Pitman et al. (1987) also observed similar reactivity using personal scripts of traumatic events that were then read to subjects. A 15-site clinical trial conducted by the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Cooperative Study Program later found that psycho-physiological assessment approach could be a useful diagnostic tool in discriminating cases of PTSD from non-cases (Keane et al., 1988). Biological alterations in central noradrenergic activity, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis, the endogenous opioid system, and the sleep cycle have been associated with PTSD (Friedman, 1991). Therefore a biological approach can complement psychological diagnostic techniques.

Role of personality in the development of PTSD

The contribution of predeployment personality traits and exposure to traumatic events during deployment to the development of PTSD symptoms was studied (Bramsen, Dirkzwager, & Van Der Ploeg, 2000) among 572 male veterans of UN Protection Force in former Yugoslavia. Other than exposure to traumatic events during deployment, personality traits of negativism and psychopathology had the highest unique contribution to the prediction of PTSD symptom severity.

Among a random sample of 1007 young adults, with rate of PTSD in those who were exposed to traumatic events being 23.6% and a lifetime prevalence of 9.2%, Breslau, Davis, Andreski, & Peterson (1991) found that risk factors for PTSD following exposure included early separation from parents, neuroticism, preexisting anxiety or depression, and family history of anxiety.

Carlier, Lamberts, & Gersons (1997) found among 262 traumatized police officers, in which 7% had PTSD & 34% had posttraumatic stress symptoms or subthreshold PTSD, trauma severity was the only predictor of posttraumatic stress symptoms identified at both 3 and 12 months posttrauma. At 3 months post-trauma, symptomatology was further predicted by introversion, difficulty in expressing feelings, emotional exhaustion at time of trauma, insufficient time allowed by employer for coming to terms with the trauma, dissatisfaction with organizational support, and insecure job future. At 12 months post-trauma, posttraumatic stress symptoms were further predicted by lack of hobbies, acute hyperarousal, subsequent traumatic events, job dissatisfaction, brooding over work, and lack of social interaction support in the private sphere. Individuals who experienced one or more traumatic events were selected (N=3238) from respondents of the National Comorbidity Survey Part II (N=5877). In separate regression analyses, elevated levels of neuroticism and self-criticism were each significantly associated with PTSD among men and women who had experienced one or more traumatic events. After controlling for types of traumas experienced and other previously identified factors, neuroticism remained significantly associated with PTSD in women and both neuroticism and self-criticism remained significant in men (Cox, Macpherson, Enns, & Mcwilliams, 2004).

The strongest vulnerability factors for both PTSD and subthreshold PTSD were neuroticism and adverse events in early childhood as found in a study involving 1721 older adults (Van Zelst, De Beurs, Beekman, Deeg, & Van Dyck, 2003).

A review of studies on personality in the etiology and expression of PTSD by Miller (2003) concludes that high negative emotionality (NEM) is the primary personality risk factor for the development of PTSD whereas low constraint/inhibition (CON) and low positive emotionality (PEM) serve as moderating factors that influence the form and expression of the disorder through their interaction with NEM. A pre-morbid personality characterized by high NEM combined with low PEM is thought to predispose the trauma-exposed individual towards an internalizing form of posttraumatic response characterized by marked social avoidance, anxiety, and depression. On the other hand, high NEM combined with low CON is hypothesized to predict an externalizing form of posttraumatic reaction characterized by marked impulsivity, aggression, and a propensity towards antisociality and substance abuse.

Cluster analyses (Miller, Greif, & Smith, 2003) of Multidimensional Personality Questionnaires (MPQs) completed by combat veterans revealed subgroups that differed on measures relating to the externalization versus internalization of distress. The MPQ profile of the externalizing cluster was defined by low constraint and harm-avoidance coupled with high alienation and aggression. Individuals in this cluster also had histories of delinquency and high rates of substance-related disorder. In comparison, the MPQ profile of the internalizing cluster was characterized by lower positive emotionality, alienation, and aggression and higher constraint, and individuals in this cluster showed high rates of depressive disorder. These findings suggest that dispositions toward externalizing versus internalizing psychopathology may account for heterogeneity in the expression of posttraumatic responses, as well as patterns of co morbidity.

Schnurr, Friedman, & Rosenberg (1993) tried to assess the predictors of combat-related life time symptoms of PTSD among 131 male Vietnam and Vietnam-era veterans who had taken the MMPI in college and who were interviewed as adults with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R. Scores on the basic MMPI scales were used to predict combat exposure, lifetime history of any PTSD symptoms given exposure, and lifetime PTSD classification (symptoms only, subthreshold PTSD, or full PTSD). The findings indicated that scores on MMPI scales were within the normal range and no scale predicted combat exposure. Hypochondriasis, psychopathic deviate, masculinity-femininity, and paranoia scales predicted PTSD symptoms. Depression, hypomania, and social introversion predicted diagnostic classification among subjects with PTSD symptoms. The effects persisted when amount of combat exposure was controlled for. This supports the findings of similar studies that pre-military personality can affect vulnerability to lifetime PTSD symptoms in men exposed to combat

Co-morbidity with anxiety disorders

Co-morbidity studies have shown stronger link of PTSD with anxiety disorders than with other disorders. There is a stronger family history of anxiety disorders than of affective disorders in PTSD sufferers. PTSD shares symptomatology with panic disorder, phobic anxiety, generalized anxiety disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. PTSD like anxiety disorders involves an abnormality in sympathetic system activity.

PTSD among female military personnel

The psychological impact of military service and associated experiences like PTSD were studied commonly among Vietnam War (1959 to 1975) veterans. The significant stressors among female military personnel ranged from hazardous occupational tasks to sexual assault (Wolfe et al. 1993). Women veterans exposed to combat during service were primarily Army nurses (Dienstfrey, 1988). In the earliest study of women and war stress participating 89 female Vietnam veterans, 50% experienced symptoms suggestive of PTSD, and 20% had significantly disruptive symptoms (Schnaier, 1985). Interviews conducted (Norman, 1988) among 50 nurses who served in Vietnam War, found that the intensity of war-time stressors were related to the continuation of higher levels of intrusive and avoidant stress symptoms. Military service at a younger age, less military and professional experience, occupational trauma involving extensive exposure to death and dying were associated with poor post war adjustment (Paul, 1985). Army nurses with less than two years of registered nurse experience prior to their assignment were found to be more at risk for negative outcomes like poor social relations, and difficulty in coping with stressful situations (Baker et al., 1989).

The National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study (Kulka et al., 1990) using the Mississippi Scale for Combat-Related PTSD found that females had lower rates of PTSD than male combatants, and women had the disorder in relation to the level of war-zone exposure. A study (Leda, Rosenheck, & Gallup, 1992) among 19,313 Vietnam Veterans found that in comparison with males, significant higher proportion of female homeless veterans were diagnosed as having major psychiatric disorders.

Social support functioned as a substantial moderator of initial PTSD. Stretch et al (1985) found that despite clear-cut exposure, female active duty personnel had significantly less PTSD than their discharged veteran cohorts, suggesting that social support served as an important moderator in the attenuation of PTSD.

Leon et al. (1990) found that coping involving increased self-blame, and focusing on negative affect and cognitions were associated with poorer outcome among female Vietnam veterans. Coping patterns characterized with expressing feelings, seeking emotional support, and searching for meaning in the events experienced, were associated with good psychological functioning, whereas use of self-blame, withdrawal, and anxious thoughts were related to current psychological dysfunction among Vietnam veteran nurses (Leon, Ben-Porath, & Hjemboe, 1990). Similar to civilian population, previous history of traumatic experience is a vulnerability factor for PTSD. Wolfe, Brown, & Bucsela (1992) assessed 76 female veterans before the onset of Operation Desert Storm and later at the height of the military combat and found that those who had previously reported high levels of PTSD were more susceptible to greater distress. The female Vietnam veterans with prior wartime exposure are at risk of intensified stress symptoms after the recurrence of a military combat.

Treatment of PTSD

There are five identifiable posttraumatic syndromes that require different treatment approaches (Marmar, et al. 1993; 1995). They are;

1. the normal stress response, is characterized by single discrete traumatic event causing intense intrusive recollections, numbing, denial, feelings of unreality, and arousal. Individual or group debriefing is used for complete recovery.

2. acute catastrophic stress reaction, involves panic reactions, cognitive disorganization, disorientation, dissociation, severe insomania, tics & other movement disorders, paranoid reactions, and incapacity to manage even basic self care, work & interpersonal functions. Treatment includes immediate support, removal from the scene of trauma, medication for immediate relief from anxiety & insomnia, and psychotherapy.

3. uncomplicated PTSD, where group, psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral, pharmacological or combination of these are used for treatment (Herman, 1992; Scurfield, 1993).

4. PTSD co-morbid with other disorders is more common than uncomplicated PTSD and is usually associated with disorders such as depression, alcohol/substance abuse, panic disorder, & anxiety disorders and therefore deserves concurrent treatment.

5. Post-traumatic personality is due to exposure to prolonged traumatic situations like childhood sexual abuse. They may have borderline personality disorder, somatoform disorder, or dissociative identity disorder. Their behavioral problems include impulsivity, aggression, sexual acting out, eating disorders, alcohol/drug abuse and self-destructive actions. The emotional problems include affect lability, rage, depression, and panic. Cognitive problems include fragmented thoughts, dissociation, and amnesia. Inpatient treatment involving behavioral and affect management with emphasis on family function, vocational rehabilitation, social skills training, and alcohol/drug rehabilitation is done for those diagnosed with posttraumatic personality disorder.

Need for assessment for proneness to PTSD at the time of personnel selection

From the above discussion it becomes evident that prevalence of PTSD among military personnel deserves a closer look and development of preventive strategies. It has been noted that PTSD is not merely an after effect of combat related events. In peace time too, dysfunctional coping strategies to stress like suicide, attacking superior officers, soldiers running amuck, excessive alcoholism etc have been reported. Though rare, cases of suicide have been reported even from training academies.

The chances of PTSD among soldiers working in LIC environment where they live in extremely uncertain environment are high. They live under the fear of unexpected attack at a unexpected time and direction. Such stresses cannot completely avoided. Only two strategies are possible here.

A nurse flicked on the light at 5:30 A.M. My first day on Ward 57 had begun. “What’s your pain on a scale of zero to ten, with ten the worst pain you’ve ever had?” she asked. Pain was apparently so endemic here it was charted on a meter. “Five,” I replied, testing the waters. Morning rounds immediately followed, a raucous rush hour of doctors consulting with night nurses and checking on their patients. A pair of interns entered in bright yellow smocks, face masks, and rubber gloves — protection against a drug-resistant bacterial infection common to Iraq, Acinetobacter baumannii, which is contracted through open wounds. The young doctors rebandaged my arm. They used tiny tweezers to pull out and replace pieces of cotton string in eight deep holes of my right thigh and buttocks. I screamed ten on the pain scale and received a shot of Demerol.

At 7 A.M., a caravan of gurneys arrived to transport soldiers to surgery. I was spared, left to the legions of specialists who proved the old adage about hospitals being the last place to get rest. I welcomed the anesthesiologists and their pain relievers. But the nonstop traffic was annoying. The social worker bumped into the dietitian, who passed the shrink. As the veterans’ rep left, a candy striper arrived. So many clergymen popped in, from a Catholic priest to Episcopalian ministers to a rabbi, I could have chaired an ecumenical conference. The brass brought commemorative coins, the Red Cross socks, occupational therapists a mechanical reacher.

The onslaught of hospital pros had one saving grace: no one seemed fazed by my injury but me. Just the word amputation made me shudder. It conjured up a disjointed series of images: a childhood friend who had lost his leg in an auto accident; World War II veterans wheeled into ballparks for holiday games, their empty trousers or shirt sleeves pinned up. I had avoided mirrors all week. Now I feared seeing the startling reality in the faces of my family and friends who would be visiting later that day.

My fears turned out to be groundless. The one emotion everyone showed was happiness to see me alive, maimed or not. But two exchanges stood out. My sister surprised me with a gift: a 1900 silver dollar our gambler father had won in Las Vegas and given to her in 1956 when she was eight years old. Leslie figured if I ever needed a father, it was now.

I held my father’s winnings and thought of the larger bet he lost. He deferred a family life to business success, and died before he had either. I had almost repeated the mistake. The realization put my father’s death in a new light. I understood for the first time why he exited before getting to know me: he had gambled on a future that never materialized. It was a mistake I could begin to forgive.

I had gambled on a job assignment and had my own damage-control problems. Skyler had reacted angrily when he first heard of my injury from my old friend David Maraniss, who had broken the news to my children and estranged wife, Judith Katz. “He lied to me, he lied to me,” Skyler shouted, referring to my parting words when I left for Iraq. “He promised me he wouldn’t get hurt.” According to Judith, Skyler had moped and cried every day until I came home.

He was the first one through the door when visiting hours began. He and Olivia bounded onto my bed, showering me with hugs and get-well posters. Dressed in camouflage pants, Skyler pointed out the intricate drawings of battle scenes in his artwork. Before long, he had grabbed a roll of gauze and wound it around his right hand. He was identifying with my loss, a gesture I saw as a sign of forgiveness. I had shaken his sense of safety, the security blanket only a father can provide. Skyler’s act of generosity capped a day of pardons across three generations of Weisskopf males.

President George W. Bush visited the ward on December 18, my second day at Walter Reed. He moved from room to room, thanking soldiers for their sacrifice and consoling families. When he reached 5735, no one was home. I’d been taken to surgery hours earlier. In Washington, even hospitals have political agendas. Major LaFrançois was the president’s advance man, and I had gotten in her way.

Actually, my job had. Up until that point, I was convinced that nothing mattered to me except the next shot of morphine. But LaFrançois had thrown me an ethical curveball. Midway through my first day, she asked to have a word alone. She told me that the White House was planning a visit and wanted to know if Bush would be welcome in my room. It didn’t take long to decide. I knew the president would be on a well-publicized PR tour to strengthen support for his war. I had favored the invasion of Iraq, believing U.S. intelligence reports of unconventional weapons. But reporters had no business helping officeholders make their case even if they agreed with it.

I declined as diplomatically as I could. The president was coming to thank soldiers and shouldn’t waste his time on a civilian who didn’t fight. LaFrançois thought I was questioning not the appropriateness of a visit but my worthiness. “We feel you are as worthy as anyone else,” she said. “You did so much for our troops to put your life on the line. You actually saved soldiers.”

My story had gotten around. From NBC Nightly News to the New York Times, the media reported it widely, and soldiers added their own editorial flourishes as they passed it along. It occurred to me that people were exaggerating the valor of my actions to help me salve the loss. I had trouble processing the praise, especially from military men whose objectives contrasted so sharply with my own. I was ready to acknowledge that my actions had saved lives, though I was still a long way from understanding what motivated those actions. I did know one thing for certain: I didn’t grab that grenade as a soldier fighting the president’s war. His political aims were at issue now. I found myself having to straddle the chasm between military and journalistic cultures. LaFrançois didn’t understand why any American would refuse a visit from the president. Nor did her bosses, who had also been contacted by Bush’s advisers and took the time to weigh in. The hospital’s commander, Major General Kevin Kiley, stopped by. “We all consider you a hero for what you did,” said Kiley, a six-foot-six onetime collegiate wrestler. “The fact you grabbed that grenade and tried to get it out, you saved some lives doing that.” We chatted for a while, and Kiley brought up the presidential visit. He said he heard that I wouldn’t see Bush. “Are you sure?” the general asked. “He would really like to see you.” I politely demurred again, moving up the chain of command.

I didn’t realize how much trouble I was causing. The hospital had an open-door policy for presidential visits. It wouldn’t have looked good on TV for a reporter to shut out the commander in chief. Kiley asked LaFrançois to persuade me to reconsider, questioning whether I had been clearheaded enough to make an informed decision. She took another crack at it, returning late that night. After I declined again, LaFrançois, like any good soldier, improvised. I was supposed to have my wounds surgically cleaned the next day. She made sure I ended up in the operating room while Bush made his rounds. The next morning, I was taken out before the dawn security sweep. I was operated on from 9:00 to 10:40 A.M. and parked in the recovery room until the president left just after noon.

From the book Blood Brothers by Michael Weisskopf Published by Henry Holt; October 2006;$25.00US/$34.00CAN; 0-8050-7860-6 Copyright © 2006 Michael Weisskopf

A senior correspondent for Time magazine, Michael Weisskopf is a Pulitzer Prize finalist and a winner of the George Polk Award, the Goldsmith Award for Investigative Reporting, the National Headliners Award, and the Daniel Pearl Award for Courage and Integrity in Journalism. Weisskopf lives in Washington, D.C.

In the US Air Force Inventory there is an aircraft affectionately called the Warthog, the A-10 Fighter. It has proven itself time and time again as a worthy airframe in peacetime as well as in battlefield conditions. The Air Force just announced that it was going to upgrade all 356 of the aircraft A/0A-10. This latest upgrade will take 5 years and $168 million dollars, a testament to the fact that the Warthog continues to live on and not end up in the aircraft bone yard. The new capabilities will allow the A/0A-10 to deliver precision guided munitions called JDAM’s or Joint Direct Attack Munitions. The Warthog will also receive other upgrade to other systems to make this one lean mean fighting machine. I can tell you that as a former munitions mechanic on the A-10 it is one great aircraft to work on and from what I was told by the pilot’s, fun to fly as well. So it does my heart well to see that the Tank Killer will continue to serve our country well and be the one aircraft enemy ground forces will fear the most.

There was a period of time right after the first Gulf War that it seemed that the Warthog was destined for the history books, and the Air Force closed a number of A-10 bases including Myrtle Beach AFB and England AFB and overseas bases like Suwon AB in Korea. The aircraft were assigned to other units in the reserves and some were moved to Moody AFB and Pope AFB. The primary role was close air support for ground forces and there was even talk of turning the aircraft that remained over to the US Army. While this would have been totally appropriate, true Warthog mechanics shuddered to think of Army Emblems on these Air Force fighters. I remember going TDY or Temporary Duty to Army bases for training exercises and seeing how the US Army personnel loved to check out our A-10 aircraft. It was a unique airframe actually built around the 30MM Gatling gun. that weapon, the Gau-8 gun is the featured weapon system of the Warthog. The Army soldiers would always tell us that they were glad that we were on their side in a combat environment. It had great stand-off abilities with the guided munitions of the day like the AGM-65 and munitions payload like Mk-82 and Mk-84 bombs. The aircraft was later modified to carry the AIM-9 missile to protect it from enemy fighters. Bad ass Warthog indeed!!

The A-10 aircraft that I worked on had Tiger Teeth painted on the nose in honor of the famous Flying Tigers of WWII history, and I always thought that it made the Warthog seem even more intimidating. I can remember seeing many great patches and pictures depicting an angry Hog holding a Gatling gun and grinning from ear to ear. The good old days of the Tactical Air Command, I do miss that. So seeing the new investment in the A/0A-10 Warthog is a good thing, maybe in the current war, it will again show the bad guys the meaning of our total air power superiority. I have no doubt that when the US Air Force history is covered many years from now, the accomplishments of the current Warthog will be in there prominently and maybe they will be flying a new type of Warthog airframe, an un-manned aircraft with a big Gatling gun, you got to have the gun.

In the meantime enemies of the United States beware, if the Warthog has you in its sights, it is too late you are already toast. Live on A0/A-10 Warthog and keep our country safe.

Along the Chesapeake coast of Virginia, gunmetal gray is as familiar a color as the clear blue sky and calm ocean blues and greens that attract visitors to the Tidewater area each year. Driving along I-64 to Virginia Beach, or down route 13 from Maryland, it is not uncommon to see large ships creeping slowly across the Bay. Visitors get a grand view of Naval Station Norfolk before the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel, and Oceanfront Virginia Beach visitors can see the lighthouse of Fort Story on the way to a day of fun.

For visiting and residing military, the Hampton Roads area offers numerous other opportunities aside from fun in the sun. While a popular destination for living and enjoying vacations, the seven cities also comprise one of the more costly areas in Virginia to live. People attached to Naval Station Norfolk, NAS Oceana, and other military insitutions in Hampton Roads may find that monthly budgets can be rather tight. Once the bills are paid, is there anything left for fun?

It’s possible, if one knows where to go to take advantage of military discounts.

Many local and regional businesses are very military friendly when it comes to offering discounts on goods and services. It is a small token of appreciation for the people who serve and protect us on a daily basis, but during months when there’s a financial pinch, a good discount can help make the weekend a bit happier for the whole family.

Entertainment

In the mood for a good laugh? Sweet Caroline’s Comedy Club of Virginia Beach offers discounts to military personnel. Also, be sure to check area concert venues like the Virginia Beach Amphitheatre and the Constant Center. On occasion, military discounts are available for big name shows.

Connectivity

Need a place to surf the Internet, play games, and hang out with other gamers? Try the WebCity Cybercafe of Virginia Beach, where all military get a 10% discount on rentals and food.

Health and Beauty

Sometimes after a long day of work, you just need to relax and be pampered. In Norfolk, L’Etoile Nail & Day Spa offers special prices on services for the military, while at Ambiance Day Spa in Virginia Beach every Friday is Military Appreciation Day with 10% all services.

History

Education can be fun, too! Take the family to Colonial Williamsburg and enjoy a military discount on admission to the various ticketed exhibits. While you’re in the area, Busch Gardens is known to offers discounts on admission to military. Contact the park to confirm.

From comedy to history, roller coasters to hair rollers, discounts on services and entertainment can be had for military personnel if one knows where to look.

On October 9, 2006 in open defiance of previous United Nations Security Council resolutions conducted its first nuclear weapons test. On October 14th. the U.N. Security Council passed Resolution 1718 in response. This resolution called for a range of sanctions against North Korea. Less than a month earlier the U. S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence issued a report entitled Recognizing North Korea as a Strategic Threat: An Intelligence Challenge for the United States to assess the threat. But does the UN’s latest resolution make the United States, or any other part of the world safer ? Using the House Committee Report as a guide, I want to take a look at that question.

THREAT: Conventional Military

North Korea has an active duty military of over 1.2 million people, with 5 million more in reserve. The Resolution 1718 does forbid the sale of tanks and other heavy military goods to the North Koreans. So there is some help here if the sanctions can be effectively enforced, and this is a big if.

THREAT: Nuclear Weapons Program

This is the big one ! The Resolution 1718 was enacted specifically to counter this threat. Even if the resolution makes us safer in some ways, yet this threat continues the resolution will have failed. Sanctions passed include a ban on trade with North Korea in any materials, services, expertise than can be used to make a nuclear weapon. All nations are also required to ban travel by, and freeze financial assets of anyone connected to North Korea’s nuclear program. However as in the above example, it remains to be seen if the sanctions can be effectively enforced.

THREAT:Chemical and Biological Weapons

Sanctions are also included in the resolution to counter this threat, particularly if delivered by ballistic missile. If anything the chemical and biological threat from North Korea is believed to be bigger than the nuclear one. Here too enforcement will be the key. Even though the resolution calls on all nations to board and inspect all ships entering or leaving North Korea, its a big ocean !

THREAT: North Korea as a Criminal Enterprise

The House report identifies North Korea as the only nation/state that could also be regarded as an ongoing criminal enterprise. There is wide evidence of their involvement in counterfeiting ( They are by far the world’s largest source of so called “supernotes”.) This alone puts the financial sector of every country in the world in danger. They are also believed to have been involved in kidnapping, and narcotics for many years. The resolution at best touches on the edge of these threats. While we are boarding ships looking for baned items we might accidentally stumble on something. However I don’t find “might accidentally” very reassuring.

THREAT: North Korea as a State Sponsor of Terrorism.

The United States State Department has listed North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism for many years. The House report does not address this issue as a separate item. There is also little in the latest U.N. resolution that might counter this threat. To be fair Resolution 1718 is narrowly focused on the nuclear threat, and the Security Council was not asked to address any other threat formally. Its worth noting that terrorism is not likely to be conducted by the North Korean government directly.

This threat is probably conducted through various surrogate organizations. North Korea’s role is in providing financial and other assistance to these surrogate groups. In my view this may well be the biggest threat to the U.S. homeland. Terrorist delivery of a nuclear device, as opposed to delivery by ballistic missile is more likely. It is also more in line with the size and weight of the device they are believed to have developed. There is little or no help in the resolution on this threat.

ARE WE SAFER ?

The North Koreans through their United Nations Ambassador immediately Resolution 1718. In fact their representative stormed out of the Security Council Chamber in protest. The success of most of the sanctions we were able to get through the Security Council are heavily dependent on the reluctant cooperation of nations such as Russia, and China. Success of the sanctions are also dependent on our ability to enforce them. Enforcement will take place from afar, including on the high seas. This will make enforcement challenging ! Personally I feel the increase in world peace, and safety will be minimal at best. In the worst case the sanctions will cause the North Korean government to fail, completely destabilizing an already fragile country. If this happens nobody really knows what will happen. If anything is scarier than North Korea with a nuclear device, its the thought of nobody knowing the location or having control over the nuclear devices the former North Korea used to have. The October 14th resolution may have a small positive effect. However North Korea is one of the biggest reasons this is a dangerous world, and this resolution by itself is too weak to change that.

There was an aircraft that used to fly across our skies that was affectionately called the Phantom II or the F-4 Fighter. It was a very powerful aircraft that seemed to prove the theory that you could make a rock fly if you put big enough engines on it. It was a MIG Killer in Vietnam and used extensively in every theater of the world. It had two huge engines that delivered 25,000 lbs of thrust and when the afterburners were lit up, it would rock the ground for miles away. The early versions like the F-4C could be seen for miles as they had a huge smoke trail, this was later modified in the F-4D and F-4E versions. There were also versions used for air recon missions that had photo cameras on the bottom. The F-4G was called the Wild Weasel and had the capability of taking out enemy air defenses, which proved to be very valuable during the attacks against the North Vietnamese air defense system. The Phantom had two seats and that pilot was in the front seat, and directly behind him was the weapons officer otherwise called the WISO. These aircraft have been featured in many movies such Top Gun or Hamburger Hill to mention just a few. The aircraft is now retired from active service, last flown by the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserves, and now can usually be seen as static aircraft all over the US. The testament to the glory days of a true fighter, and though it was hated by maintenance personnel it carries a special place in the hearts of those of us who worked on it.

The Phantom was definitely a loud and leaky aircraft that loved to fly, in fact if you flew the aircraft constantly it would rarely break, but let it sit for even a few days and it took a major effort to get the plane back up again, such was the legacy of the Phantom. There was also a unique thing that all maintainers came to know as well called the Phantom bite, as this aircraft had many jagged and protruding drains that would inevitably cut or hurt you. Still it was a badge of honor to get it, but if you were lucky you just lost a uniform and no skin. The Phantom had light strips on the sides and when it was sitting on the end of the runway and lit up the afterburners it was truly an amazing sight. That has been captured by many photographers, but it had to be seen to be believed. Luckily there are some F-4’s featured in various air show acts and if you are fortunate to see one, be sure to watch it on take off, that is where the legacy of the Phantom was born, the power and might of McDonnell-Douglas engineering in all 5,195 of the Phantoms that were produced from 1958-1979.

I was stationed at Clark Air Base in the Philippines in the late 80’s and got to work on these mighty beasts called the Phantom. Our aircraft, of course had Shark Teeth painted on the nose and were feared immensely by our good friends up there in North Korea. The meaning of the teeth painted on the nose was to represent fear to the Asian people, but I appreciated it from a strictly artistic prospective. The Phantom ruled the Pacific those days and even those up and coming F-16 Falcons had to bow in respect when the F-4 Phantom II rolled by, and it was not until the F-15 Eagles started to replace the aircraft in the inventory that signaled the end of an era. Phantoms of the Air Force now live on in our memory only.

Allan Howerton had never seen anything like it — which was saying a lot.

He had swapped a job hustling White Castle burgers on the graveyard shift in Rahway, New Jersey, for action in six bloody, crucial battles in France and Germany, surviving some of World War II’s most deadly months on the ground. By his own calculation, he was one of only eighteen out of 570 infantrymen in his company to make it through every one of those battles without being wounded, captured, or killed — which meant, he would later joke, he was either good, lucky, or foolish. Or a bit of all three.

Still, Howerton felt nothing he had faced before — not the deadly and constant thudding of artillery, not the endless slogging through the mud of Roer and Rhine, not even the sight of death and hope and fear mingling on the faces of enemy and friend alike along the Siegfried Line — had prepared him for this latest massing of men, for this unprecedented mission with no guarantees.

Howerton stood on a packed tramcar, thick with the smell of Winston and Pall Mall and the familiar waiting sounds of shuffling, coughing, murmuring. The troops had been gathering for weeks, arriving first by the dozens, then the hundreds, and, finally, they began moving in by the thousands. Now they streamed toward the city and headed for the high ground, an emerald hilltop near the urban core with a commanding view and easy access by road and rail — idyllic, quiet, underpopulated, waiting to be taken.

And so the most remarkable, least predictable action of World War II began to play out, a movement of more Army, Navy, Marine, and Air Corps forces than has ever been attempted before or since. Howerton’s was just one location in a worldwide endeavor — a coordinated effort of such magnitude that it would shape the future of America and the world in a way that would eclipse almost every battle of the war, even the Normandy landing and the decimation of Hiroshima. The men in Washington who had conceived this audacious plan virtually as an afterthought, almost killing it a half-dozen times before finally setting it in motion shortly after D-Day, had in no way foreseen what this moment would look like — nor did they envision the long reach of its impact, still resonating to this day. In time, all America would feel its effects, from city to suburb to farm, from classroom to boardroom, doctor’s office to Oval Office — an unintended juggernaut.

The tram doors creaked open and the men rushed into the thin morning sunlight, freed from the coffinlike confines of the old trolley. Howerton, his thick brow knitted in momentary confusion, struggled in the jostling crowd to get his bearings on this unfamiliar turf, this grassy knoll with its old brick and granite buildings stretching out before him, gnarled trees, singed by autumn, obscuring the horizon. Then he heard someone say, “This way” and Howerton turned and saw the sign pointing to their objective:

University of Denver: Office of the Registrar

He took a deep breath and headed off to sign up for his freshman classes, a nervous eagerness roiling his stomach, a far different unease from the sort he came to know during his time in war-torn Germany. The fears no longer involved bullets and bleeding and death, but professors and textbooks and midterms — and contemplation of a future that was no longer simply about surviving to see the next day, but about envisioning a new century, building a career, a life, a country.

On that creaky trolley car in Denver, in a moment replayed in cities and towns throughout the nation, the age of the G.I. had drawn to an end. And the age of the G.I. Bill had just begun.

The Accidental Remaking of America

Although he had no idea at the time, Allan Howerton’s journey to Denver began two years earlier, on January 11, 1944, when two very distinct road maps to postwar America landed on Congress’s doorstep.

One vision for “winning the peace” came wrapped in the pomp and ritual of the president’s annual State of the Union address. The other was scrawled by lobbyists a mile from the Capitol, on hotel stationery, then hastily typed up for public consumption.

One represented nothing less than President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s plan to expand the Founding Fathers’ original vision of a just America: giving every citizen the right to a rewarding job, a living wage, a decent home, health care, education, and a pension — not as opportunities, not as privileges, not as goods to which everyone (who could afford them) had access, but rights, guaranteed to every American, from cradle to grave. He called it a “Second Bill of Rights.”

The other plan, courtesy of the era’s most powerful veterans organization, the American Legion, advanced a more modest goal, or so it seemed: to compensate the servicemen of World War II for their lost time and opportunities, offering 16 million veterans a small array of government-subsidized loans, unemployment benefits, and a year of school or technical training for those whose educations had been interrupted by the draft or enlistment. The Legion called this a “Bill of Rights for G.I. Joe and Jane.”

The first plan promised to reinvent America after the war.

The second offered to put things back to where they were before the war.

As it turned out, neither plan’s promises could be kept. FDR never got the chance to remake America. Instead, the G.I. Bill did.

This was not by grand design, but quite by accident, as much a creation of petty partisans as of political visionaries. Yet the forces set in motion that day in January 1944 would power an unprecedented and far-reaching transformation — of education, of cities and a new suburbia, of the social, cultural, and physical geography of America, of science, medicine, and the arts. And just as importantly, the blandly and bureaucratically named Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, forever remembered as the G.I. Bill of Rights, would alter both the aspirations and the expectations of all Americans, veterans and nonveterans alike.

A nation of renters would become a nation of homeowners. College would be transformed from an elite bastion to a middleclass entitlement. Suburbia would be born amid the clatter of bulldozers and the smell of new asphalt linking it all together. Inner cities would collapse. The Cold War would find its warriors — not in the trenches or the barracks, but at the laboratory and the wind tunnel and the drafting table. Educations would be made possible for fourteen future Nobel Prize winners, three Supreme Court justices, three presidents, a dozen senators, two dozen Pulitzer Prize winners, 238,000 teachers, 91,000 scientists, 67,000 doctors, 450,000 engineers, 240,000 accountants, 17,000 journalists, 22,000 dentists — along with a million lawyers, nurses, businessmen, artists, actors, writers, pilots, and others. All would owe their careers not to FDR’s grand vision, but to that one modest proposal that was supposed to put the country back to where it had been before the war.