Medal of Honor Recipients Push PTSD Counseling

* By Bryant Jordan Military.Com *

It’s among the most sensitive subjects for troops stressed out from war while trying to get on with their lives, their families and their careers: whether to tell anyone what’s going on inside.

Now, a unique band of brothers has come together to tell those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder that it’s more than OK to tell. The group consists of 35 Medal of Honor recipients – men from America’s past wars who have the credibility to tell those fighting its current wars that help is there for the taking and to take it.

“Anybody that’s been to the gates of Hell has PTS,” Paul “Bud” Bucha, who was awarded the nation’s highest award for valor for actions in Vietnam in 1968, says in a 34-second video. “It’s something you have to remind yourself of if you find yourself drinking too much, snapping at your kids, snapping at your wife. Go seek help. It took me 30 years to do. Look for it now, and most important, stay sober.”

Bucha’s advice and encouragement, along with 34 of his peers, is being made available for free from Medal of Honor Speak Out. The short, to-the-point videos were developed with the help of TriWest Healthcare Alliance, which manages the Tricare program for the Defense Department’s 2.7 million beneficiaries. The MOH recipients – survivors of combat and ex-prisoners of war – say on the website that they are compelled to speak out to the current generation of troops to encourage them to seek help for behavioral health issues that are often a result of deployment and combat.

The message: “Don’t let the enemy defeat you at home.”

Read more at Military.Com