Major news outlets for the past few months have focused on the drawdown of our nation’s longest war: Afghanistan.
At its peak, there were more than 100,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan in 2010; the number of troops have steadily shrunk over the past decade. While news coverage debates the decision to cease combat operations, the highest-ranking enlisted service member in the military said Veterans from the war should remember the positive to help reconcile their service.
“Our purpose for being there was to prevent further attacks on the homeland,” said Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Chairman Ramón “CZ” Colón-López. “We wanted to make sure that we denied Al Qaeda, specifically, of sanctuary, training ground and places where they could plan terrorism attacks. If you look at the past 20 years, that is exactly what we did. There hasn’t been a single attack on the homeland. They will think twice about doing it because of our actions over the past 20 years. For our Veterans, be proud of what you did, because you have kept the country safe over the last 20 years.”
Deployment and PTSD
Colón-López has lived the war for two decades. He was an element leader with the 24th Special Tactics Squadron on 9/11. Shortly after, he deployed to Afghanistan on direct action and combat search and rescue missions to capture or kill high value targets. He also provided security for Hamid Kharzai, who later served as Afghanistan’s president. Now, as the senior enlisted service member, he serves as an advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on all matters involving joint and combined total force integration, utilization, health of the force, and joint development for enlisted personnel.
Colón-López admitted getting to a place of being proud of his own service wasn’t easy. Serving as a special operator in Afghanistan, he’s dealt with tragedy and personal demons. He said one of his personal hardest moments was hearing the death of Air Force Veteran Scott Duffman, who died with seven others on a mission in 2007. He also faced repeated deployments, placing both physical and mental stress on his body. While stationed at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico, a July 4th celebration in neighboring Albuquerque turned traumatic. The combination of the desert, smoke in the air, loud noises and smell of powder triggered his PTSD.
Years of dodging his PTSD led to heavy drinking, moodiness, hiding his trauma during physical health appointments and engaging in reckless behavior. Once, while stationed in North Carolina, he left work for his 45-minute drive home. By the time he got there, he was in tears. He went inside and talked to his wife, Janet, about his PTSD. While talking about it helped him, he said the breakdown was simply “mitigation.”
Seeking help
Colón-López said a mountain biking accident in Germany led to an ultimatum from Janet to get help. He crashed his bike while seeking a thrill to replace his combat experience.
“She said, ‘you’re going to the clinic now,’” he said. “It was liberating by the time I actually went in there. I thought I could fix myself and that is not the answer.”
He now encourages every Veteran to get help for PTSD.
“The first thing I will tell them is there is no shame in doing so,” he said, citing 20 years of combat operations in Afghanistan, as well as Iraq, Syria and other locations. “We’re resilient, we know how to suck it up, and we know how to power through it. But there’s going to come a time to where you won’t be able to do that.”
Dealing with the end of combat
While some troops have reconciled their service, not all have. With the recent news and announcements over the end of the Afghanistan mission, VA facilities also started seeing an increase in Veterans seeking help. Two psychologists from the National Center for PTSD said they are starting to see Afghanistan Veterans bring up issues around their service.
“Reactions aren’t always what people think they are going to be, and that’s okay,” said Dr. Jennifer Vasterling, the chief of psychology at the VA Boston Healthcare System and affiliated investigator with the National Center for PTSD.
Veterans should be on the lookout for red flags if news of Afghanistan starts changing behavior, said Dr. Sonya Norman, director of the National Center for PTSD Consultation Program. These include isolating, using alcohol, drugs or any increase in unhealthy behaviors compared to normal. This could even include things like excess work or video games.
Avoidance
Another unsuccessful coping mechanism many Veterans use is avoiding the topic.
“It can feel really good in the short term,” Norman said. “In the longer term, avoidance breeds more avoidance. It felt so good that one time that you begin avoiding more and you start doing less. Your world becomes so small, time over time, as you avoid more and more.”
Norman said that numbness can spread and snowball, where people aren’t feeling pleasure or joy. She said people can feel danger in relatively safe situations. For those people with PTSD, replacing traumatic wartime memories with thoughts and activities that make them happier can be difficult without treatment and may feel reluctant to let the memories out.
“It’s pretty hard to do on your own without treatment,” she said. “If you actually let the emotions from the time of the trauma flow, they kind of do their thing and someone feels a lot of relief. There’s room to bring in other positive memories and experiences, which are just as real.”
As an example, she used an analogy of a 17-room mansion, saying the traumatic memory may still have a room, but there will be 16 other rooms for positive memories.
‘Be proud of what you have done’
According to Colón-López, one of those positive memories Afghanistan Veterans should be proud of is the fact that U.S. troops arrived home safe. The last U.S. combat death was Feb. 8, 2020, more than 17 months ago.
“We had been there for 20 years, and I know because I was one of the first people to go out there on the first rotations. What we have done from then to now is phenomenal,” he said, pointing toward the progress made in Afghanistan, including helping stand up a government and building a military force.
“For any Veteran out there listening, be proud of what you have done,” he added. “Our government has made the decision and we have followed lawful orders.”
Watch Colón-López talk about mental health: www.facebook.com/watch/
Story by Adam Stump, Department of Veterans Affairs
I’m sure in the profession of arms there is gonna be alot of soul searching in the years to come. Jim Gant was right and there was only one way to win this thing. Thank you all for your service.
While I served in Afghanistan, what concerns me most is the outcome. This is a different Taliban than on Sept 10, 2001. This Taliban has a lot more experience, is better equipped and connected, and has likely a deeper hatred of the United States. Right now, I’m concerned of the immediate threat of a major hostage situation – or set of them – in Afghanistan. After that, I’m concerned of AQ’s foothold and ability to gather forces, train them, and coordinate attacks of the West, especially the United States.
I have 2 Purple Hearts from Afghanistan. I’d do it over again, because I went there to try to make a difference with the people I served with and the Afghans I encountered. I think I at least partially achieved that in a positive way. There was nothing I could do to stop this all from happening, but it’s still frustrating.
Thanks for what you did , and more importantly your intent in doing it- that shows strongly in your current worries. It’s good that it frustrates you, the acceptance and understanding you showed in the first half of that sentence will be an important counter-balance. In the end we’re all just trying to be the right cog in the right wheel, only the engineer knows what the contraption does….
The American and Coalition participation in the war was based on lies and deception. It doesn’t matter whether we’d “won”, or lost, it was all a giant waste. Any positivity is like finding a kernel of corn in a turd.
Even if the official story of 9/11 was legit, everything that happened as a result was ineffective and immoral.
From a not brain washed Sangin Valley Combat Veteran. I pray that all the war dead are granted peace and justice.
I’m sure you have evidenced from your supposed “not brain washed” self that the official story of 9/11 wasn’t legit?
Let me guess, something about jet fuel and steel beams?
I invested quite a bit of my time to operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. I cannot speak for anyone else, but here is how I look at both our collective and my personal efforts there.
We were not able to bring “democracy” or enduring peace to either country. That was never something that any military – no matter how motivated or professional – was ever going to be able to do. For the record, I witnessed many senior military leaders tell our civilian leadership that the nebulous mission of “nation building” was not one we could reasonably accomplish.
What we could and did do – and can be rightly proud of – was to buy precious time. Lots of time. 20 years of time. Ample time for our leaders to define a military strategy that was actually achievable. After 4 Administrations, I am still waiting to see that strategy. That is on them, not those of us that were in the arena.
Moreover, for the people and leaders of Afghanistan and Iraq, we also gifted that same amount of time to build their own nations. The Afghan government has collapsed and Iraq is dominated by Iran. So they squandered that opportunity – not us.
It is unfortunate that the people of those countries will have to suffer because of the failures of our leaders and theirs. Speaking of Afghanistan specifically, everyone who knew anything about the country, knew that the Taliban would be back in power shortly after any US withdrawal. Today, 5 years ago, or 5 years from now, was not going to make a difference.
I don’t know why anyone is acting surprised now.
TLB
100% Concur. The strategy never came and it seemed that the powers that be were content on stringing things along indefinitely. Anyone that has spent any time over there could see that there was no real interest in a unified Afghanistan outside of Kabul.
Well said Sir, very well said.
“After 4 Administrations, I am still waiting to see that strategy. That is on them, not those of us that were in the arena.”
Amen. There is one consistent theme here and that is a failure of leadership. If you look back over the last 20 years there are many of the same people at the core of this. It was those people who were entrusted with advising and creating policy across administrations who have failed us most. It is also a U.S. Congress, charged with oversight, that seems to never adequately perform that process. These are the people for whom I reserve my contempt. It was the men on the ground and their families who paid the price for their dereliction. Those and their families men are the only ones who deserve our undying support and accolades.
My personal involvement in Afghanistan and the region goes back well before 9/11. I’ve been there to study, climb, soldier & work. I will go back again.
What we are now watching – in real time – could have been different all along the process, including right up until the last few months. At times we had things very right, but every time we got it wrong we narrowed the possible outcomes.
Not everyone was a hero but some of us that went cared what happened there and can stand proud that at least one generation got a glimpse of what what education and democracy might look like because of our efforts. Hopefully some seeds were planted that in future times can stand against terror and fundamentalism where the military can’t, and were only ever going to be half the solution however much we ignored it.
I agree there’s few surprises. The abandonment of allies and making of enemies in the region has become the new profile. Already countries we don’t align with are filling the void. At least it’s their backyard I suppose. How we cope with that will be interesting, I suspect more hype and disinformation and it seems it’s already started. This is what you get when you disregard nearly 20 years of not negotiating with terrorists so you can win a few votes on the other side of the world.
At some point you can’t hold their hand. Given the similarity between both the current situation in Afghanistan and what happened in Iraq with ISIS, I’d go so far as to say many of our “allies” in both countries were never allies.
Taqiyya in practice.