Interviewing ‘profoundly affected’ soldiers

By Joe Hight, Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma and The Oklahoman

The reporters' questions for Ed Pulido have changed during the three years since he lost his left leg after a roadside bomb attack in Iraq.

So has his range of emotions about them.

In August 2004, Pulido was a U.S. Army reservist major traveling in a sport utility vehicle when the bomb riddled him with metal fragments. The blast broke bones connected to his knee, and infections eventually forced the amputation of his leg.

Pulido estimates that he's faced at least 50 interviews since that time. The interviews have followed him from the "grieving" process about the loss of his leg to the "recovery" process and challenge of retiring from his military career to the "triumph" of skiing and returning to work as a vice president of the United Way of Central Oklahoma.

Some interviews, he said, were positive and supportive while others seemed like attempts to pressure him to make negative statements. All of them have made Pulido more aware of the issues involved when reporters seek interviews from veterans returning from Iraq.

The media "should be aware that the soldiers are going through processes that they've never encountered before," he said.

For some, it's like returning from hell, said Dr. Frank Ochberg, an expert on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, and founder of the Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma.

Many service members have faced "a great deal of exposure to trauma and tragedy. This means that you've had first-hand experience that you didn't expect, that broke your heart," Ochberg said.

"You have been profoundly affected. You have lost your connection to God, your sense of meaning, your sense of coherence. You're not just shaken up; you're disconnected from your human groove."

Ochberg is quoted in a new book called "Your Family Military Network," which will be published in August by Capitol Books in Washington. The book will point out studies that indicate a large number of service members returning from Iraq or Afghanistan have screened positive for PTSD or a mental health disorder within the first year after coming home. The book also will say that "an additional 50,000 veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan are believed to be suffering from mental health problems" – nearly half from PTSD.

"The majority of troops returning home will not experience any long-term psychological concerns from their combat service," the book says. "However, the extended nature of the war has resulted in multiple redeployments and extensions for many military service members and their families."

A 2006 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association places the percentage of those service members reporting mental health problems after returning from Iraq at 19.1 percent.

The deployments range from two to four rotations in Iraq as compared to one in Vietnam, writes Stacy Bannerman, an analyst for Foreign Policy in Focus (FPIF) and author of "When the War Came Home: The Inside Story of Reservists and the Families They Leave Behind." In a FPIF Policy Report called "A Perfect Storm: PTSD," Bannerman writes that troops are having difficulty because they are facing insurgents who dress as civilians and are fighting a street war without front lines. And military personnel constantly face the prospect of roadside bombs – like the one that wounded Pulido – or attacks while in Iraq.

Newsweek magazine emphasized this reality with a recent "Voices of the Fallen" special issue that carried the headline "any day I'm here could be the day I die/The Iraq War in The Words of America's Dead."

The "Your Family Military Network" book carries the same emphasis: "Front-line soldiers face extreme violence in Iraq. According to the Department of Defense studies, more than 90 percent said they had been shot at. Nearly 20 percent said they saved someone's life. More than 80 percent of Marines said they saw injured women or children they had been unable to save."

Ochberg added that women in the military often face other "secret wounds" ranging from harassment to rape.

So when interviewing service members, reporters should be cognizant of the environment in which they approaching them, said Caroline Peabody, the book's author and president of The Military Family Network, an organization based in Hampton, Va. For example, troops just returning from Iraq probably would rather decompress and rest before answering tough questions from reporters.

Sharon Schmickle, a Minneapolis Star Tribune reporter who has been embedded twice, added that reporters will receive much different answers at the welcoming-home ceremony than a few months later. She recommends that reporters ask how service members are doing at that moment rather than "What are you going to do with the rest of your life?"

Peabody stressed that reporters should understand they are interviewing a unique population, one in which military personnel have signed a contract that states your body belongs to the U.S. government.

"There's no other bottom line … where you are called to give your life," Peabody said.

Journalists also should remember that service members may be constrained from commenting because they are still in the military. Pulido added that regulations prohibit comment on whether the war is right or wrong.

Schmickle, who was embedded with U.S. Marines in Iraq in 2003 and with the Army in Afghanistan in 2004, agreed.

"Asked how the war is going, most will give a positive response regardless of their inner thoughts. They aren't allowed to criticize the mission," Schmickle wrote in response to an e-mail question. "And they also don't want to express anything that could be seen as disloyal to their units. The upshot can be very frustrating to them."

Understanding these factors and doing your best to spend time with the returning veterans and their families may be vital in getting the best interviews, journalist Curt Guyette and others said.

Guyette wrote a story called "Battle Cry/From ‘Nam to Iraq, two generations of vets find their common ground" for the Metro Times, an alternative newspaper in Detroit. In his reporting, Guyette spent time with Chris Killion, a 27-year-old Iraqi war veteran whose shrapnel wounds earned him three Purple Hearts, but also caused him enduring pain and PTSD.

"Chris was a difficult interview for me. I've never seen someone suffering that much," Guyette said. "The story was hard to do, emotionally trying."

However, Guyette said he was able to interview Killion because he got to know him, tried to relate to some of the veteran's experiences and researched PTSD. He also was able to use his experience as a journalist to relate the plight of the veteran to victims of violence, as a police reporter would.

"The trauma might be in the past for these guys, but it still can be immediate," Guyette said. "Their trauma can be ongoing."

If interviews are done correctly, Pulido said, reporters will be able to get the necessary details for their story and perhaps even provide an outlet for veterans to tell their stories.

"I appreciate the media," said Pulido, the Puerto Rico native who now limps only slightly because of a computerized artificial leg. "They gave me a sounding board to tell people about the importance of sacrifices that we made for this country. To me, that's the ultimate goal."

---

Joe Hight is president of the Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma's Executive Committee. He also is managing editor of The Oklahoman in Oklahoma City.