Mendenhall, far left, in training, and with wife, Linda Kushner, in their Huntington home. (Newsday / Julia Gaines)
Troubled Huntington GI aided by new center
BY RHODA AMON | rhoda.amon@newsday.com
9:49 AM EDT, May 3, 2008
When Sgt. Stanford Mendenhall returned to Huntington from duty in Iraq with the "Fighting 69th" infantry, he found himself unable to work, suffering repeated flashbacks and severe chest and back pain and getting no help from military sources.
The pain began in Baghdad, where Mendenhall patrolled the dangerous airport road, seeing explosive deaths and destruction and helping pick up body parts. Returning in 2005, he faced Army and Veterans Administration doctors who, he said, couldn't find anything wrong with him.
In the next two years while he fought for help, the former Hicksville letter carrier went into a financial spin; his car was repossessed, fuel, utility and credit card bills mounted to more than $40,000.
Mendenhall, who was 42 when he returned home, older than most soldiers, first enlisted in 1984 for three years because there was no work in his Alabama hometown.
He re-enlisted in the 69th National Guard unit in Manhattan in 1987 and served on security duty at Ground Zero after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. He was deployed to Iraq in 2004.
"You do what you're supposed to do," he said, "but when you come back they don't want to take care of you."
A soldier in distress
A spokeswoman at the Keller Military Medical Center at West Point said, "We addressed the concerns that he came to us with a year ago." The process may be taking longer, she said, because "there are a lot of soldiers going through here these days."
Mendenhall has post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. About 320,000 military personnel returning from Iraq or Afghanistan have PTSD, a major depression, according to a RAND Corp. report, "Invisible Wounds of War," released last month.
In Mendenhall's case, emotional distress was coupled with physical injuries and ailments, including a spinal fracture, bone loss, lung problems and seizures, some of which may have been caused by exposure to toxic materials either overseas or possibly at the 9/11 site, experts say.
But Mendenhall has found a place where he is heard, receives treatment for PTSD and gets help navigating the military medical establishment.
The Rosen Family Wellness Center for Law Enforcement and Military Personnel and Their Families was opened last year at the Manhasset campus of the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health Care System. About half the center's 30 current clients are military, most of whom, like Mendenhall, are having difficulty readjusting to family life.
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