Ted D Kilpatrick

Service with the Navy and Marine Corps started in the fall of 1965 when I received a direct commission as a USNR Naval Officer in the Medical Service Corps. I was assigned to Bethesda Naval Hospital in Washington DC for three months of Officer training in Naval procedures and how to serve in a military hospital.

My first duty station after training was as the Staff Psychologist at the Norfolk Naval Hospital in Norfolk, Virginia. I worked as a Psychologist and saw active duty personnel and dependents. In the early fall of 1966, I received orders to report as a Psychologist to the Third Marine Division in South Vietnam. The orders required 30 days at Camp Pendleton in California for Marine Corps combat training before going to Vietnam.

At Camp Pendleton I was in a squad of 12 medical officers also on their way to Vietnam. We learned to how clean, load and shoot M-14 rifles and 45 caliber pistols. We marched at night through hills with hidden spider holes where Marines shot blanks in our direction if we missed recognizing the danger. The veteran gunny sergeant had a difficult group of unhappy “DOCs” to teach necessary combat survival skills. We complained of the long hours and hard nighttime demands. Once in the combat zone the value of this intense exposure to combat realities became obvious and much appreciated.

I arrived in Da Nang, South Vietnam for duty as Division Psychologist of the Third Marine Division and was there several weeks before moving to the Third Marine Division Field Hospital in Phu Bai South Vietnam. The field hospital was in Division Headquarters located 10 miles SE of Hue in northern South Vietnam near the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) and North Vietnam.

In 1966 and 1967 there was intense fighting surrounding our compound. Night mortar attacks and probes at the security wires were common. The Marines built a ten-cot screened hut to house psychological causalities who were not also physically wounded. If the fighting was spaced over several days and I had cot room, I had a chance to treat damaged Marines in country. When hit hard with numerous causalities I had to evacuate psychological casualties to the hospital ships, Japan or back to the USA.

Upon leaving Vietnam in the fall of 1967 I received orders to report as the Staff Psychologist at the Naval Hospital in Jacksonville, Florida. This provided an opportunity to work with a few of the Marines I had had to evacuate directly from combat. They did not recover as well as those I was able to see in country but quickly warmed to me and trusted me when they found out I was a combat veteran.

I left the Navy at the end of my three-year commitment and went on to complete my Ph.D. at the University of Florida starting in1969. My degree in Clinical Psychology and the required internship was finished in December 1971. I had an individual private practice in Jacksonville, Florida the next 43 years working as both a clinical and industrial psychologist. I took a 10-year time in mid 1994out to work as an executive with Gate Petroleum in construction and manufacturing. This broadened my knowledge of business, finance and investing.

I retain my Florida Psychology License and still see a few veterans returning from Mideast combat pro bono. Their suicide rate is very high, and they hate to seek help so escape through drugs and alcohol is too common. Once self-respect, purpose and value are gone, suicide becomes an attractive “self-rescue” response.

The purpose of this book is to confirm that residual combat war-damage is not a mental illness. CSS (combat survival skills) that veterans come home with need patient understanding, relieving/in-depth disclosure and soul-caring acceptance such as that available from gentle women and trained dogs.