PTSD: Get tougher, soldiers

It really upset me to read of the use and misuse of post-traumatic stress disorder ("PTSD rules an invitation for false VA claims," May 2). The Department of Veterans Affairs and we American taxpayers are being scammed by all too many of the soldiers who are coming home from a so-called war claiming permanent mental damage from the war's trauma. The VA is paying way too much to too many claimants whose trauma is with doubtful cause, and certainly self-made to draw VA disability dollars.

I'm a very old veteran of two wars. In WWII, I was a combat infantryman in Italy. Our battalion had more casualties each day than all of the services have in the Middle East in a month. We fought one of the best armies ever, while now our services are fighting unorganized terrorists. We had no roofs over our heads, no meals except canned/boxed rations. We had no sanitary facilities except our shovels. We went for weeks without showers or clean clothes. Further, I spent the first very cold winter in Korea, where living conditions were terrible, and we were inadequately clothed.

Certainly, when we were back in the USA, we had a lot of adjusting to do, but we did it, just as we did our jobs against our nation's foes. In our time in the wars we were soldiers and did our duties with much risk of our lives and well-being.

Perhaps the VA should hire a lot of combat veterans to interview these PTSD applicants and to weed out the fakes, of which there have to be way too many. Many of their grandpas fought in real gory wars and had the strength of character to adjust again to civilian life.

After each war, I bit my tongue to avoid soldier's language and straightened my back to be a man -- and a self-sufficient man. The same can be done in 2010.