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" FORT HOOD, Texas — Six months before his deployment to Afghanistan, Capt. Anthony Martinez gravely doubted his ability to lead.
He had post-traumatic stress disorder. He wasn’t sleeping at night and was barely holding it together during the day. He told his boss he couldn’t handle command of the battalion’s largest company. Senior noncommissioned officers asked leadership to remove Martinez.
Six weeks before shipping off, Martinez threatened to kill himself. Then he wrote a formal memo detailing who should take over the company if he had a mental breakdown while in Afghanistan.
The Army did nothing — except send him to war.
No one in his chain of command questioned whether a suicidal officer, hobbled by PTSD and addled by psychotropic drugs, was fit for combat.
Once in Afghanistan, Martinez quickly cracked under the pressure, and the meltdown some had been afraid of became a reality. He isolated himself, had angry, irrational outbursts and, finally, in the culmination of his ruin, threatened two soldiers.
He told one to get out of his office “or I’ll shoot you in the face.” Then, during an argument with his supply sergeant, he ordered a private in the room to load his weapon — an unheard of escalation on a fellow soldier.
Now the Army wants to act.
After ignoring the issues, the service wants to kick Martinez out for the very behavior that medical experts say proves why he never should have been in Afghanistan in the first place.
In 2010, Martinez was one of nearly 15,000 servicemembers with at least one deployment to be diagnosed with PTSD that year, according to data compiled by the Congressional Research Service. Studies have found that almost one in five returning veterans overall suffer from PTSD, and the military struggled to balance their needs with the requirements of fighting two wars over the past 12 years. At large bases across the country, the Army has often drummed out soldiers who had clean records and served admirably in combat before being diagnosed with PTSD and running into trouble.
" FORT HOOD, Texas — Six months before his deployment to Afghanistan, Capt. Anthony Martinez gravely doubted his ability to lead.
He had post-traumatic stress disorder. He wasn’t sleeping at night and was barely holding it together during the day. He told his boss he couldn’t handle command of the battalion’s largest company. Senior noncommissioned officers asked leadership to remove Martinez.
Six weeks before shipping off, Martinez threatened to kill himself. Then he wrote a formal memo detailing who should take over the company if he had a mental breakdown while in Afghanistan.
The Army did nothing — except send him to war.
No one in his chain of command questioned whether a suicidal officer, hobbled by PTSD and addled by psychotropic drugs, was fit for combat.
Once in Afghanistan, Martinez quickly cracked under the pressure, and the meltdown some had been afraid of became a reality. He isolated himself, had angry, irrational outbursts and, finally, in the culmination of his ruin, threatened two soldiers.
He told one to get out of his office “or I’ll shoot you in the face.” Then, during an argument with his supply sergeant, he ordered a private in the room to load his weapon — an unheard of escalation on a fellow soldier.
Now the Army wants to act.
After ignoring the issues, the service wants to kick Martinez out for the very behavior that medical experts say proves why he never should have been in Afghanistan in the first place.
In 2010, Martinez was one of nearly 15,000 servicemembers with at least one deployment to be diagnosed with PTSD that year, according to data compiled by the Congressional Research Service. Studies have found that almost one in five returning veterans overall suffer from PTSD, and the military struggled to balance their needs with the requirements of fighting two wars over the past 12 years. At large bases across the country, the Army has often drummed out soldiers who had clean records and served admirably in combat before being diagnosed with PTSD and running into trouble.
