PTSD expert discusses Vietnam veterans' struggles decades after the war
MOUNTAIN HOME, Tenn. (WJHL) — More than 50 years after returning home from Vietnam, the veterans who served still struggle with what they saw and did and how they were treated when they came back to the U.S.
'They struggle with the idea that, on the bigger scale, it didn't accomplish the change that they were told they were going to accomplish,' said Andrew Presnell, the program manager for the PTSD Clinical Team at the James H. Quillen VA Medical Center. 'We try to focus them on, you know, it did mean a lot to the person next to you that you were faithful in your service because you doing your job meant that maybe they got to come home too.'
Vietnam veterans share thoughts on Fall of Saigon on its 50th anniversary
Being in a war zone is an unthinkable experience to many, with tough assignments and difficult situations.
'Oftentimes hard to tell if they were a friend or foe. Which makes it very difficult when you come back to, to trust your evaluation of what's going on around you,' Presnell said. 'And it's the same kind of situation we saw in more recent conflicts, where ill defined enemy makes it much harder to deal with that anxiety.'
A great number of those who served in Vietnam were drafted, which adds a different element to that particular group's struggles.
'They weren't choosing to go to Vietnam, and they have been told to go,' said Presnell. 'And it's not infrequent that people volunteered when they felt like their number was coming soon. So it's kind of like somewhere in between being drafted and sent and choosing to go.'
More than 58,000 of those who went didn't get to come home.
'The ones who did make it home, they really come home with a burden,' Presnell said. 'They saw friends with serious injuries or who lost their life. And they question a lot of times, why them? Why did they make it back? You know, that's an unanswerable question… They feel like they owe something or that somehow that the choice was wrong. They should have been the one who stayed, and someone else should have made their way back. But it adds a lot of weight and difficulty to moving forward with life, because you feel like somehow you were lucky enough to get this when you don't feel like you deserved it.'
Vietnam War era veterans not only fought a war overseas but also back home with the American people.
'Where the issue comes is that when you come back to people telling you that you've done the wrong thing, telling you horrible things about yourself because you've gone when you didn't really make the choice to go, you know, I'm doing what my country asked me to do. And now, when I come back, people are not accepting that. I was just doing what I had to,' he said of veterans.
Presnell said he's also noticed a difference in the way Vietnam veterans react to being thanked for their service.
'Their initial reaction sometimes to ['Thank you for your service'] is one of kind of irritation, anger. Because what are you saying? You know, why are you bringing this up?' he said. 'Then they kind of readjust the idea that, okay, these people don't necessarily hold the same thoughts and beliefs that I came home to, but it impacts how they accept those kinds of recognitions and in some ways makes recognition now more meaningful to them, because it's about these people actually have a positive feeling about my service.'
Many of them suppressed those feelings and avoided them.
'The treatment is going to be helping them come to terms with that avoidance,' he said. 'And how do we overcome that avoidance and deal with these memories, deal with these events, deal with these things in our daily life that seem to prompt these sorts of symptoms to come up.'
Presnell is a veteran himself and can relate to those he works with.
'I understand PTSD. I don't understand what every single person's ever gone through, but I can bring what I know. My team can bring what they know to help you kind of work through that stuff,' he said. 'We are here. We do respect what you've gone through, and we want to help you deal with that in a way that doesn't continue to be a barrier to living a life moving forward.'
News Channel 11's final segment of The Vietnam War: 50 Years Later airs Friday, May 2 at 5 p.m.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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