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.