Big Army fails SGT Trevino
The Washington Times tells the story of SGT Reynaldo Trevino who enlisted after high school because of the events of 9-11-01. If you read the article (and disregard the usual misuse of military terms by journalists) you’ll read about a stellar career of a young sergeant who did tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and as a result, suffered from anxiety leading to sleep problems, so he went to a doctor and was prescribed some sleep aids.
Then Trevino decided that he wanted to go to ROTC on the “Green to Gold” program and become a JAG officer. He received accolades from his chain of command and was virtually assured of an appointment to the prestigious program. Until some anonymous officer, somewhere along the way, wrote that his application was denied;
The reason stated for denial is: “I have determined the SGT Trevino is medically disqualified for participation in the US Army Reserve Officers Training Corps Program” and “Due to the nature of his medical condition (psychiatric) it would not be in the best interest of the Army to allow him in this program.”
What Trevino requested was a waiver for the anxiety he felt from his deployment to combat zones but clearly, his anxiety was/is mild with no signs of any stress disorder.
Anyone who experiences combat, particularly in Afghanistan where conditions are of subsistence, will experience some anxiety.
Trevino’s psychiatrist, commanding officers and anyone else who is aware of his exemplary record profess anger, disappointment and frustration as does Trevino; in spades.
Now, see, here’s my problem with this story; Everyone at Big Army has told their commands that they don’t need to worry about seeking treatment for their states of mind when they return from the war, they get angry when someone self-medicates or commits suicide without seeing a professional about their problems, yet they allow shit like this to happen.
If Big Army was serious at all about eliminating the stigma of seeking psychiatric help, they should have corrected this immediately, before any of us hear about it. this goes along with the “The Army doesn’t Love Me Back” post I wrote the other day. It’s one of those things that Army doesn’t do well – be honest. They’ll let a jihadist stay in uniform until he kills 14 or 15 people. They’ll let a gay soldier be a drama queen until he steals a boatload of classified information while acting out. But then they’ll turn around a screw a combat-experienced soldier out of his dreams.
I’m not a betting man, but in this instance, I’d bet the officer who wrote that statement denying Trevino’s application has been flying a desk for the last twelve years and never heard a shot fired in anger.
Category: Big Army
“If Big Army was serious at all about eliminating the stigma of seeking psychiatric help, they should have corrected this immediately, before any of us hear about it.”
Jonn, yer way too auld to be a’ believin’ in Leprechauns, laddie.
As is anyone else who reads TAH. “No stigma”, my ass.
I think it’s illegal to discriminate on these grounds. I know when I was in the made it to where getting psychiatric help was not a disqualifying factor to get your security clearance, which is a requirement for officers.
This is bullshit.
I think that Officer should put his/her name out there.
Sounds to me like someone had it in for Trevino for some received slight.
im not sure ive stated my mandatory 25 times today, i hate officers. ya get a damned fine NCO willing to be officer (i dont know why anyone would want to do that) and they shoot him down. an opportunity to have some experience at the PL position,but hell no, we cant have that!
I wish I could say I’m surprised. And as has been pointed out, the “officer” who wrote those comments will never have the balls to stand up and own his words.
I saw this shit too many times in my career to believe it was an outlier. Fucking non-hacking pogues can suck start my ass.
I’m starting to like the idea that no one should be an Officer until they have done four years Enlisted first.
Was SGT Trevino Infantry?
GT…does it matter?
@9.
Odd question.
I will be honest and this is just an opinion.
In my work, I have seen many “PTSD” diagnosis that came from CS and CSS. Example: A 40 yo woman sitting on a shitter missing her kids at 0200 when a mortar round goes off 3 miles away.
Diagnosis: 100%. Or combination of both between VA and DoD. Your pick.
Flip side: A 11B E-3 in contact every three days (dismounted) that has gotten his ass kicked. But the resilience and toughness (however you want to interpret it) results in 10%.
Not picking a fight or taking a side.
And I understand the battlefield is asymmetrical. Believe me, I know.
Just curious as to this gentleman’s professional/military background.
Unless Sgt Trevino has been documented as having piss-poor judgement or a substandard performance ( regardless of his medical diagnosis) this is pure bullshit.
There are servicemen who have lost limbs and returned to active duty. If a soldier adapts to and deals with a condition where they meet or surpass standards it shouldn’t be a disqualifying.
im with GT on this. 2 guys i work with, one a 88M, the other a 92G are drawing 70% and 90% for catching the ptsd. myself, an 11B, draws 30% for a broken back and blown out shoulder. ive never met an infantryman that was out on patrol day in and day out claim PTSD. some sleep issues, sure, but not disabling.
@11.
I agree.
As I said, I was curious as to his background.
This query is more of a personal nature.
If the man is qualified, and it seems he is, grant him the scholarship.
They even went so far as removing the question about seeking treatment from the EPSQ (electronic personnel security questionnaire) that needs to be completed for a clearance including TS/SCI Clearance/Access. A JAG Officer has no usual need for such a clearance, and i’t not even considered for it.
This kind of bullshit makes the whole “Army Resilience” program complete and utter bullshit, and will just drive Soldiers needing help back underground.
I have a TS/SCI Clearance and in 2002 was petrified that I had gone to a marriage counselor! This is the kind of shit we’re going to regress back to as we’re lulled into the sleep of a “peacetime dividend”
Jonn, I’d agree with your view that the officer in this case has never her a shot, other than qualification. Also, I’d bet his decision was made when he followed a flow chart that some other REMF made out. He checked the boxes and “made” his decision.
GT…I say that as it shouldn’t matter what his MOS is. I agree that those in tougher jobs are less inclined to “catch teh PTSD” or play what we used to call the, “my wife she/my kids they/my dog it” game. He sucked it up and did multiple deployments, and if all he has is some understandable anxiety, I’d say he came through pretty well.
Having said that, Jonn is more than likely right that the “officer” in question hasn’t BTDT, or if they did deploy, never venture beyond the wire. An officer who had might have had a more realistic perspective.
@15, never heard a shot. Damn fingers.
Folks, this is nothing more than yet another manifestation of a return to “peacetime Army” rules after a period of wartime or major expansion.
I’ve personally seen this four times now during my lifetime. First time was the post-Vietnam drawdown. I wasn’t serving then, but I grew up near a major Army installation and had many friends/acquaintances who either (1) had parents in the military, or (2) were on active duty themselves. Same kind of crap happened then – minor, petty stuff became major issues. Best I could tell, this condition persisted through most if not all the Ford and Carter administrations.
The Reagan defense build-up stopped that – for a few years. But starting in the late Reagan administration, we started to see this again when things got financially tighter as the economy cooled a bit. It got fairly bad during the early Bush(41) administration, before Aug 1990.
The Gulf War temporarily stopped that – but it began again afterwards. It got pretty damn bad during the Clinton admin.
9/11 and GWOT changed things yet again. But now that GWOT is winding down, we’re reverting – again.
The constant factor? When the Army begins to draw down, minor and petty BS discriminators start to matter – a lot. “Clean” files become virtually mandatory for selections for WOCS, OCS, SRNCO promotions, etc . . . – e.g., for pretty much anything that goes to a central selection board. (That generally always has been pretty much a necessity for officer and WO promotions, but during wartime or major expansions there’s sometimes a bit of slack there.)
Is that right, or the way it should be? Hell no. Wartime leadership potential should always be the standard. But in times of drawdown, it often isn’t. Petty, BS discriminators take on outlandish importance. That’s what we’re starting to see now. This is merely one manifestation of that change.
Based on history, this will persist until the next major threat and expansion, or until the next war. I’ve seen this too many times now myself to be convinced otherwise.
Tend to agree, Hondo. Not something we need to like, but it is the real world. Looking for excuses to disqualify people is maybe a teensy bit better than simply arbitrarily eliminating every 3rd, or whatever, name on a list.
I saw what Hondo said when I re-upped in May 1972, after finishing college. I went up to Great Lakes and was told ‘they don’t know what to do with you’ by September, which was ludicrous. The Paris Peace conference didn’t start until December that year, but things were drawing to a close before that. I just picked a bad time to go back in. I could have gone into the reserves instead, but I didn’t, and it was a mess.
I am also a “Green-to-Gold” graduate.
Remember that old “ETS Physical” where they tell you to list every possible thing that could be wrong with you know or in the future due to military service?
Yeah..that physical almost deep sixed my G2G application for the same reasons.
Until I wrote a letter stating that everyone is told to list all of that stuff at the standard ETS physical….never heard another thing about it.
This guy needs to get his Congressmen and Senators involved in this BS.
Ex-PH2: bingo. Saw a man I much respected as a youth – a prior-service CPT/O-3 who had done some truly dangerous stuff in Vietnam, had gone to OCS, and was a damn fine officer some years later – get RIFed about then (1973 to 1975 time frame). Luckily he had enough enlisted time that he was able to revert to enlisted status (after the RIF he was an E7) and finish his 20. Otherwise, he’d have been on the street in 6 months with severance pay.
A few years later, I saw some damn good NCOs who’d been to Vietnam and done the normal and expected “blowing off steam” as youngsters post-combat peak at E6 and/or nearly get tossed because of those now-meaningless blemishes in their record. Yeah, those Article 15s in Vietnam were really meaningful indicators of their potential 15 years later, weren’t they?
Criteria that serve as discriminators are necessary, particularly during a drawdown, to ensure that the service releases those who should not stay. But those discriminators should be ones that matter, and which accurately predict how one will perform in combat. They shouldn’t be based on meaningless “eyewash”.
I can’t speak for the other services, but the Army IMO historically has done an absolutely execrable job of picking such discriminators during the past 40 years or so. I firmly believe a Patton or Allen today would be thrown out on their ear during the first drawdown occurring during their career.
That’s a travesty. Yet I firmly believe it to be truth.
Don’t kid yourself, Hondo, the Navy does it, too.
Ex-PH2: not kidding myself, lady. I’m certain all of the services do the same or similar.
I can only speak for seeing it first-hand clearly in the Army (I could give one relatively recent example from the USAF as well, but that’s not my service so doing so isn’t really my place). I’ll thus leave giving examples from the other 3 services to others.
well, at least he didn’t get boned as hard as those guys in the early years of the war that would go see the Div Mental Health folks for combat stress/PTSD and get labeled with a “pre existing mental health condition” and get kicked out after one or two tours with nothing because clearly their combat experience had nothing to do with their problems. When I heard about that shit and came back from my second tour I told my guys to stay away from the Army’s head shrinkers. Some might say I was wrong for discouraging my Joes from getting mental health help. I don’t see it that way. Every time I read a story like this one, I feel I was right in keeping myself and my guys away from those lousy Drs. Let’s face it, we all know the majority of “Drs” in the military are there for one reason.
Was doing some heavy reading on PTSD,,, it appears that up until 1980 or so that the VA only would give you a temporary rating for PTSD ( or whatever term they used before it).They figured that if you had issues 6 months after leaving the service it stemmed from issues you had before or after combat.
I’d estimate that at least 25% of the Army officers I worked for were fu–ing insane.
Yup. None of us believe that ‘no stigma’ crap. We’ll deal with our demons after we retire.
Obviously, this POS anon Zero has never has a sleepless night in his/her life… I’ve had more than my fair share in almost 51 years on Earth dealing with everything from keeping a junior Sailor or Marine from hurting themselves to worrying how I was going to make my bills for the month… and I’ve been to Mental Health on more than one occasion just to have someone hear me out.
This shit has happened for years – go talk to someone in Mental Health and you’re “Toones, Looney, one each”, and the stigma follows you for a while. But if you put in for a Commission program, some asshole like the one that shot down the SGT’s package because they took a undergrad class in Psych and they think they know the DSM front and back and “believe” that the SGT would not be a good O because he “caught teh PTSD”.
Looks like the chickenshit “zero” needs to be on a shrinks couch and talking about their “mommy/daddy” issues with the doc.
Removing “stigma”? That’s just to get the crazy people to expsoe themselves so you can toss them out easier!
Obviously, this POS anon Zero has never has a sleepless night in his/her life
Either that, or his own mental health is so compromised he’s pointing his finger at other people to keep the attention off him.
Another idea occurs.
Is this the same health care that thought Hasan was suitable to counsel soldiers?
“We’ll deal with our demons after we retire.”
Yeah. And I don’t say a damn word to the VA about anything either. “Nope, no issues. Sleeping fine. No anger problems, no anxiety, feeling great.”
It’s not that I don’t trust them, it’s just that…well, no, that’s exactly what it is.
Ya can’t really blame the Army as a whole, like anything else in life (i.e. government) the one thing that screws the whole plan up is….PEOPLE, the army has programs set aside to deal with all kinds of what ails ya, unfortunately, there are ass holes in the army who wear rank, and they make determinations on peoples welfare based on their personal opinions, so SM’s who have issues get denied services to treat em because some ass wants to be a prick and try and “HOOAH” people to death….