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Article Date11-07-2010
Record TYPENews
Article TOPIC 
Article TitleUphill struggle for vets
Article ContentUphill struggle for vets

By Bill KAUFMANN, Calgary Sun
Last Updated: July 8, 2010 11:33pm
VVi 11 Jul 2010 db


It seemed a perfect match for both, particularly a large organization literally dying to get new blood into its increasingly sclerotic veins.And it’s also a sad commentary on Canada’s misbegotten adventure in Afghanistan and the gaps left in its ex-warriors’ safety net.
Years after his life was altered by going to the rescue of Canadian soldiers hit by a U.S. aerial bomb in Afghanistan, one-time PPCLI Shaun Arntsen concluded that work wasn’t finished.

Back on civvy street, Arntsen figured taming other veterans’ Post Traumatic Stress Disorder demons that he, too carried since that fateful night could be done through wilderness bonding.
The dream was born as was a golden opportunity for a greying Royal Canadian Legion to bond with a younger generation of veterans.

Last year, the Legion — which supports many worthy charitable causes — stepped up with funding for the vision and scored a rare coup with the young IED dodgers.
Officials at one legion branch after another have been hard-pressed to point to any card-carrying Afghanistan returnees in their midst.

They’re the one breed of veteran whose numbers are too thin to merit an entry in the organization’s membership stats.
It wasn’t many days ago that Arnsten felt that shortcoming could be reversed, if the trend that brought him and fellow vet Marc D’Astous into the legion fold continued.

And the Outward Bound-affiliated pilot program had been active with ice climbing and hiking excursions in the Banff-Canmore area.

But last week, local Legion officials terminated Arntsen’s leadership of the program, apparently with the agreement of Outward Bound.

This isn’t about Arntsen, “it’s about the veterans and we have a fall schedule,” says legion district President Daryl Jones.
But it’s a decision that’s drawn the ire of not only Arntsen but Afghan vets who say their doubts about the Legion’s relevance have only deepened.

It may not be an intentional attack on that younger generation of soldiers, but the symbolism of the move has the same effect, says Arntsen.
“It’s sad for me to see this — it’s got so much potential,” says Arnsten.

The Afghan vet said he’s been accused of creating the program to massage his ego and to assure himself a job, with helping fellow vets an afterthought.
Arntsen was offered the option of working as an unpaid volunteer, he added, something the third-generation soldier rightly refused.

“My grandfather who served in World War Two did a lot to set up the Legion in his part of Saskatchewan,” he says.
None of that matters; Arntsen says his overseers are replacing his leadership with civilians who lack the savvy and sensitivities vital in dealing with combat veterans that only their peers possess.

I’ve never attended any of these veterans’ outdoor excursions and can’t vouch for their quality, though Arntsen insists clients rate it highly.
It does raise wider questions over how our latest crop of veterans are perceived in a country with such an ambiguous view of the Afghan debacle.
Arntsen probably sees a symmetry in allies dropping bombs on him near Kandahar and figurative ones at home.

We’re nowhere near understanding or appreciating the complexities of PTSD and many of our broken veterans accuse the military of the same thing.

Now we’re seeing a squabble over how to help them.
Far sadder yet is that we’ve sentenced so many of our soldiers to mental trauma that’ll linger far beyond our forces’ Afghan departure, and maybe as long as the Taliban persist.
We can only hope our prime minister honours his vow to end the mission next year.
bill.kaufmann@sunmedia.ca
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