Ever get flashbacks?

[Jeff L]

We have Air National Guard Hueys and Cobras that fly over occasionally. My former next door neighbor was a medic in Viet Nam. He said the chopper sounds would give him flashbacks sometimes. Does this ever happen to you?

[SMOKEY]

Certain sounds and smells in the winter always remind me of boot camp at Great Lakes

[joem]

Only once that I remember. I was being tested for sleep apenia and had not had a good nights sleep for months. I would even fall asleep driving. After they put on the CPAP mask I was out quick. And there I was in VN and couldn't wake up. I don't know how long this lasted but it seened like hours. SCARED TO HELL OUT OF ME.

[mike24d20]

As Smokey said, certian smells or sounds plus the lack of bug sounds. At night when the bugs are loud-then no sound I go into a almost combat mode with the shotgun coming off safe.

[Fred]

The smell of diesel takes me back to my days in Armor (tanks).

[cplnorton]

Whenever my wife gets mad at me and goes off, it reminds me of Drill Instructor Sergeant Bowman. They are both equally mean. :)

[broom jockey]

The whop whop of Huey helicopter blades especially when I'm in the middle of wherever. At times I smell those smells from 'Nam.

[Dan Shapiro]

When I first came home from 'Nam, I really didn't believe the 'flashback' thing. I lived near a USMC base. Heard cannon fire and Hueys all the time, day and night. Never had a problem.

Then one afternoon I was walking down an empty isle in a Safeway store doing some shopping. All of a sudden I heard people speaking in Vietnamese. I broke into a cold sweat and started shaking. One isle over, Mama-san and Papa-san were doing their own grocery shopping.

That's the only occasion that I can recall. Although I do get pissed off when I come across documentaries involving LBJ or McNamara.

[Big_Al]

To me, a "flashback" is different than a memory, and what the VA terms "intrusive thoughts".
Dan (above) had what I would consider a flashback. I have never had one of those, a sort of out-of-body experience. One that is so real it is overwhelming. Although I was in treatment at the VA with some who have.
I have had certain sights, sounds and smells trigger memories that have lain dormant for years, yes.
And I have had intrusive thoughts of the war come with no stimulus, out of the clear blue sky. Things I had forgotten about, repressed.

[Ron James]

Not anymore and not for a long , long time. As stated some sounds and smells will trigger a memory but I don't register that as a flashback. Only twice can I think of a " flash back reaction " , once , just back from my first tour from Nam and on leave, late night, just went to sleep, a car passed by on the near by high way, muffler was dragging, sounded just like a M60. I woke up on the floor shaking, I remember I was trying to find my gear and was getting frantic about it. There was one other time, my wife knows about it, no one else does, when I had a flash back about the flight my friend ( as those who serve know, friends become closer than blood. ) was killed. That was triggered by believe it or not a police radio next door. sounded just like the FM radio in flight operations. Other wise no, I grew up very hard and very little bothers me.

[Dan In Indiana]

A few times when for no reason while sleeping, I see the orange glow growing bigger and bigger coming from what I thought was our POL dump at ChuLai going up in flames from a rocket attack during Tet of '68. It wasn't the POL dump but our entire bomb dump going up. I had stuck my head out of a bunker and the blast wave moved me to the other end of the bunker. I now get to wear hearing aids. When ever our high school football team scores a touch down, they send up an aerial bomb making me freeze in my tracks.

[Guamsst]

I have always found this subject fascinating. Flashback is a very subjective term. I assume you mean a Hollywood John Wayne flashback which is very very rare. More common are dreams that seem real and are hard to separate from reality when waking. Then there are the incidents where something triggers a vivid memory that makes you paranoid, nervous, scared. Next are the triggers that make you feel like you are somewhere else even though you know better. Finally, there are just the triggers that make you think about a place. These are all unfortunate but necessary parts of being a survivor.

I, like most people who ever went anywhere miserable, have the last two forms fairly regularly. Raw sewage, Diesel and clear day sunrises all make me have "flashbacks" where I feel like I am in the desert. Weird things to experience, but I am thankful that I only have to deal with minor annoyances. Most of what people think of as "flashbacks" or even mild PTSD is simply conditioned response. Training or intense repeated experience causes you to react a certain way to triggers even when it is not the correct reaction. I was in a parade once and the local grain silo used an old Air Raid siren to signal lunch hour. When the siren went off I had to fight the urge to run to a bunker. With enough reinforcement or repetition the subconscious can compete with or even overpower the conscious mind. Oddly enough, it is getting away from the root cause that causes the "symptoms". The sudden transfer from the combat zone to the civilian world is a very confusing thing. Even for a REMF POG waking up in the AOR one day and in the "real world" the next is disorienting at best. I don't think I have any form of PTSD or any kind of suffering from my experiences. Overall, I had a generally enjoyable adventure in my 20yrs. But waking up at home, not being sure it was real, I can appreciate how hard it would be for a front line soldier to separate himself mentally from the "combat zone".

The Germans had better success at treating "shell shock" than the allies. The main reason being their policy of treatment within ear shot of the front lines. I can't help but think that PTSD rates would be lower for Vietnam and current vets if they had to march out of the "combat zone" then catch a slow boat home, instead of getting on a plane at a base that gets mortared daily in some cases and then being in the land of clean sheets and pajamas the next day.

I know men who have woken up and tried to kill their wife or fight off enemies who were not there. Others have nightmares their whole lives or atleast for many years. Humans haven't maintained their position at the top of the food chain by forgetting things that nearly killed them.

[madsenshooter]

I flashback to Sinbad sometimes popping into my dorm room, telling jokes and being Mr. Funny all through the building.

[Guamsst]

I flashback to Sinbad sometimes popping into my dorm room, telling jokes and being Mr. Funny all through the building.
Were you really stationed with him? He does tours downrange from time to time and loves to trash talk the Air Farce, mostly bashing the commissary and BX and their nearly mandatory credit card designed to make Airmen close personal friends of the 1st Shirt...lol

[madsenshooter]

I was in the same squadron, the 91st Air Refueling Squadron. He was a boom operator, I was a clerk. I recall one of the times he got in trouble, he was trying out for the AF basketball team. He didn't make the team, but since his TDY orders said a certain number of days, he decided to go visit mom and dad in Benton Harbors, MI with some of the days left on the orders. He didn't get in much trouble over it. I see he owes a lot of back taxes, he ought to get a govt job so he can pay them! Court jester at the Oval Office would be a good one for him. Ought to pay as much as a congressional rep, clowns either way you look at it.

[Michaelp]

I don't get flashbacks, but memories are tricky.
Buddy of mine and I were BSing a while back and he told a navy story that suddenly reminded me of a really serious bloody incident I had not thought about in years.
Maybe it was a flashback-I didn't mention it, but was lost just thinking about it for a minute or so.

That is one reason you don't hear many real war stories-not pleasant to recall on several levels, and telling things to people who never had the experience is a waste of breath.
I got a buddy who did a hard tour as a Navy Corpsman with Marines. We used to drink too much and talk too much, but at least we could talk to somebody who had a common experience. We got to avoiding each other after a while.
I go to a lot of vet reunions and the SF Conventions. You hear a few war stories, but 99% is just about the fun stuff.

[Guamsst]

That is one reason you don't hear many real war stories-not pleasant to recall on several levels, and telling things to people who never had the experience is a waste of breath.

I go to a lot of vet reunions and the SF Conventions. You hear a few war stories, but 99% is just about the fun stuff.

I had an Airman come back off leave and he couldn't wait to tell me about it. He said I was probably the only one that would care or understand. His grandfather was in the Army in WW2 and that was ALL he ever told anyone in the family about it. When my Airman went home on leave he said his grandfather pulled him aside and said he wanted to talk to him then took him in the den, told the rest of the family to stay out and then shut the door. His father was a Ranger who went up the cliffs at Point Du Hoc on D-day. As he told my Airman, he never said anything to the rest of the family because no one else had even bothered to serve and didn't deserve to get to talk to him about it.....LOL

As to the fun stuff, to me, it is a dead giveaway when someone wants to talk about the bad stuff. When I hear some guy has been telling everyone about what a big hero he is or all the war crimes he carried out, I just assume the guy is full of $#!T. There are a few guys that work the gunshows around here who are supposedly that way. One has his kids convinced he got the MoH. They all know I am military and a history buff and so far not one of them has mentioned any of their heroics to me. One guy who isn't assumed to be full of it, told me a story I was getting ready to call BS on....He was on a hill in Korea and saw a North Korean "Tank looking thing" down in the valley below him. He opened up on it and his buddy ran off. He said he was mad and was thinking what a coward his buddy was. Then he confided in me that when it opened up on him he realized his buddy wasn't a coward, he was just smart enough to know when to run. He said he still has pieces of shrapnel in both inner thighs, but the M2 shielded him so he had a chance to get smart and get gone too. Most of the damage was to his pride...LOL

[Former Cav]

I thank God everyday that HE took away my nightmares.
ONly ptsd I got was from dealing with those commie traitors at the v a !

[Griff Murphey]

My military experience in all of its two years' grandeur was in retrospect really a lot more fun than I realized at the time. As I mature (age) I wish more and more for a "wayback machine."

Usually my dreams are that somehow I did not finish and I owe them time and I have to go back.
Then the worries in the dream are about my business but...enh! If ya gotta go, ya gotta go! Bye all!

In REALITY... All I did was take care of a few lightly wounded/injured refugees. The experience of being on deck at night watching a battle on shore but with a relative feeling of safety was uniquely thrilling and frightening at once.

Other vets, even a Brit friend who fought at Suez, report pleasant "veteran" dreams far removed from PTSD issues that get so much press.

By the way, people who DO suffer from PTSD nightmares may benefit from dental jaw anterior positioning devices (Such as the T.A.P.) that open the airway and improve blood oxygen levels. I understand the VA is having good results with these, especially for sleep apnea/PTSD patients who cannot tolerate the CPAP because it reminds them of NBC gear.

[RCK]

Not a "flashback" but a genuine "memory. I was at an outdoor flea market yesterday and picked up a small, OD can of GI bore cleaner. Got it close to my nose and I was back in basic 52 years ago this month at Fort Knox cleaning my MI. That stuff sure did stink!

[Nick Riviezzo]

Guamsst, please reconsider your position on when someone wants to talk about the "bad stuff". When people are making heros of themselves ,yeh, probably fertilizer. However, when people talk about the "bad stuff" without self aggrandisment they are usually trying to "talk out the hurt". Some of us turned to drugs to cope ,some to the bottle, some to abborant behavior and some of us tried to make a game of it all. You have to protect your psyche to maintain your balance. Just my take, Nick

[Michaelp]

Very well put.

[gtodan]

First let me say thank you for all you GI's sharing your stories. You are one of less than 1% of our country who served. And you bear the scars. Thanks!

Flashbacks no.

Diesel. JP4. canned heat. Loud noises. People approaching from behind unexpectedly. Cordite. Semi rigid (huey, cobra) blades smacking the air. I could not gut a deer for a long time. Still bothers me.

Nightmares did not start till my birthday 2003 when we invaded Iraq. I almost ended it for a very sensitive vet psychologist who pulled me out of it. Its funny how we all react differently to stress.

Thanks again.

[swede49]

I don't have flashbacks in a negative sense, but there are many days when I do think about the year in VN and the many other years I spent in USAF. Mostly good thoughts, no night terror.

[Ken The Kanuck]

After reading these posts I have to wonder if it was the combat that is the trigger? Back in the seventies I spent over three years oversea, some of it in S/E Asia and I do not have flash backs. Maybe it was the trauma of combat?

Again thanks to those who have served.

KTK

[blackhawknj]

It often seems to me that flashbacks-like PTSD-are something we are "supposed" to get and use as excuses when the need arises. I'm not saying they don't exist-like the sadistic DI or the NCO who's the bully, the officer who makes LT Fuzz come to life, etc. but they are a lot rarer than we think and usually manufactured when the need arises. There were all the stories about the "Crazed Vietnam Vet" in the 1970s, it was found that so many were rear echelon types, drug users and discipline problems, in many cases received an OTH discharge-seen as an "early out" by too many back then, then they found out there is a stigma, so "PTSD" or what ever became the all purpose excuse.
Often seems to me there is more of a stigma in being a Charlie Askins type, admitting that yes, you have done it, and yes, you DO enjoy it.

[Major Tom]

Loud noises, certain smells and a Huey flying over head reminds me of 'Nam. Years ago my brother-in-law used to come up behind me and yell "bang". Scared the crap outa me. He doesn't do that anymore since I smacked him a good one the last time he did it.