Fortunate Son

 

 

Until I read his book, “Grateful American”, I was unaware of how heavily Gary Sinise was involved with veteran’s organizations, and it started roughly about the time that he played the role of Lieutenant Dan in “Forest Gump”.

 

 

One of the people that Sinise introduced us to in his book was a man named Lewis Burwell Puller Jr. Since the Wikipedia article about him is very extensive, I’ve posted most of it below verbatim:

 

Lewis Burwell Puller Jr. (August 18, 1945 – May 11, 1994) was an attorney and a United States Marine Corps officer who was severely wounded in the Vietnam War. He won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography for his autobiography Fortunate Son.

 

Life and career

 

Lewis Burwell Puller Jr. was the son of Lt. General Lewis "Chesty" Puller, the most decorated Marine in the history of the U.S. Marine Corps. He followed in his father's footsteps and became a Marine officer.

Puller was graduated from the Christchurch School, in Christchurch, Virginia, in 1963 and from the College of William and Mary in 1967. After his graduation from Officer Candidate School, he received orders to South Vietnam in July 1968, where he served as an Infantry Platoon Leader for three months. On October 11, 1968, his rifle jammed during an engagement with North Vietnamese troops; Puller was wounded when he tripped a booby-trapped howitzer round, losing his right leg at the hip, his left leg above the knee, his left hand and most of his fingers on his right hand in the explosion.

The shell riddled his body with shrapnel, and he lingered near death for days with his weight dropping to 55 pounds, but he survived. Puller later recalled the first time his father saw him in the hospital. He described how his father broke down weeping and that hurt him more than any of his physical injuries. Those who knew him say that it was primarily because of his iron will and his stubborn refusal to die that he survived. He was medically discharged from the Marine Corps. He was awarded the Silver Star Medal, the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal, two Purple Heart Medals, and the Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross for his service in the Marine Corps.

 

For years after he returned to a reasonably sound physical condition, he remained emotionally shaken, though he earned a Juris Doctor degree, had two children with the woman he had married before going to Vietnam, and raised a family. He was admitted to the Virginia Bar in 1974 and began working as a lawyer for the Veteran's Administration and on President Gerald Ford's clemency board.[4] He mounted a campaign for Congress in 1978 as a Democrat in Virginia but lost in a landslide with only 28% of the vote against incumbent Republican Congressman Paul Trible. Throughout the years, he battled periods of despondency and drank heavily until 1981, when he underwent treatment for alcoholism. Despite that treatment, Puller continued to suffer severe depression and occasional bouts of alcoholism.

Puller told the story of his ordeal and its aftermath in his 1991 autobiography, Fortunate Son: The Autobiography of Lewis B. Puller Jr., published by Grove Press. The account ended with Puller triumphing over his physical disabilities and becoming emotionally at peace with himself. The following year he won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography. The title of this autobiography was borrowed from the song "Fortunate Son" by Creedence Clearwater Revival, to which he gives credit in the opening pages.

 

 Creedence Clearwater Revival - Fortunate Son (Official Music Video) - YouTube

 

According to friends and associates, Puller spent the last months of his life in turmoil. He left his job as a lawyer at the Pentagon to accept a teaching position at George Mason University. In the days leading up to his death, Puller fought a losing battle with the alcoholism that he had kept at bay for 13 years, and struggled with a more recent addiction, to painkillers initially prescribed to dull continuing pain from his wounds.

Death and aftermath

 

Puller died from a self-inflicted gunshot on May 11, 1994. He was survived by his wife, Linda T. "Toddy" Puller, from whom he had separated in 1991. Puller's survivors included their two children, Lewis III and Maggie, his twin sister, Martha Downs, and sister, Virginia Dabney.

Puller's name is not listed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, which is reserved for those who died or who are listed as missing in action. However, his name is listed on the nearby In Memory Memorial Plaque, which represents those veterans, like Puller, who "died after their service in the Vietnam war, but as a direct result of that service, and whose names are not otherwise eligible for placement on the memorial wall." Terry Anderson, a former Associated Press journalist, who was held hostage in Lebanon, recalled the same hope he had had for his friend, Puller. "This is a man who had so many burdens, so many things to bear. And he bore them well for 25 years," he said. "What did I miss?" Anderson asked. "I was his friend. I thought he was winning".

In a statement, Puller's wife, Toddy said, "Our family has been moved and humbled by the outpouring of affection for Lewis. The many acts of kindness from our friends across the country have helped us in this very difficult time. It is clear that Lewis affected the lives of people in ways that we never knew." Of her deceased husband, she said, "To the list of names of victims of the Vietnam War, add the name of Lewis Puller ... He suffered terrible wounds that never really healed" In 1991, she was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates.

On Veterans Day 2010, the Lewis B. Puller Jr. Veterans Benefits Clinic at The College of William & Mary Law School was named in honor of Puller.

 

Like his father, Lewis Puller Jr. has been the recipient of numerous awards, which are listed in more detail in the article cited above.

Sadly, his story, or ones like it, are becoming more numerous for combat veterans.

 

https://www.ptsd.va.gov/understand/common/common_veterans.asp

 

The incidence of PTSD for veterans is increasing. Although the incidence among WWII veterans is fairly low, it has gradually increased with each conflict, and it is the highest among veterans of Iraqi Freedom, at 29%.

The increase in PTSD has also led to an increase in suicides.

In 2012 alone, an estimated 7,500 former military personnel died by suicide. More active duty service members, 177, died from suicide that year than were killed in combat, 176. The Army had 52% of the suicides from all branches.

 

(Fortunately, treatment with psilocybin has been found to be very effective in treating PTSD).

 

In 2013, the United States Department of Veteran Affairs released a study that covered suicides from 1999 to 2010, which showed that roughly 22 veterans were dying by suicide per day, or one every 65 minutes. Some sources suggest that this rate may be undercounting suicides. An analysis done in 2013 found a suicide rate among veterans of about 30 per 100,000 population per year, compared with the civilian rate of 14 per 100,000.^[However, the comparison was not adjusted for age and sex.

According to a report published by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in 2016, which analyzed 55 million veterans' records from 1979 to 2014, the current analysis indicates that an average of 20 veterans die from suicide per day.

A 2021 study by Brown University estimated that 30,177 veterans of post-9/11 conflicts had died by suicide. When compared to the 7,057 personnel killed in the conflicts, at least four times as many veterans died by suicide than personnel were killed during the post-9/11 conflicts.

A study released in 2022 found that as many as 44 veterans die on average per day from suicide when accounting overlooked causes of death that are aligned with suicidal and self-harm behavior, which is 2.4 times greater than the official estimate.

The total number of suicides differs by age group; 31% of these suicides were by veterans 49 and younger while 69% were by veterans aged 50 and older.^[11] As with suicides in general, suicide of veterans is primarily male, with about 97 percent of the suicides being male in the states that reported gender.^[6] In addition to differences among age and gender groups, there has also been found to be significant disparity in suicidal ideation and completion rates among marginalized groups such as LGBT military members. Suicidal ideation was found to be 2-3 times greater in LGBT active-duty and veteran service members, with transgender veterans having been found to commit suicide at double the rates of their cisgender peers.

In 2015, the Clay Hunt Veterans Suicide Prevention Act passed in the Senate and was then enacted as Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law (United States) 114–2 on February 12, 2015. It requires the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to organize an annual third-party evaluation of the VA's mental health care and suicide prevention programs, to mandate website updates at least once every 90 days about the VA's mental health care services, to offer educational incentives for psychiatrists who commit to serving in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), to collaborate with nonprofit mental health organizations with the goal of preventing veteran suicide, and to extend veterans' eligibility for VA hospital care, medical service care, and nursing home care. However, the limitations of this act are very restricting. Veterans can only access extended eligibility if they have been discharged or released from active duty between the years of 2009 and 2011 and if they have not enrolled in care during the five years following their discharge.
	Never served in military	Veterans and active service
Women	5.2	28.7
Men	20.9	32.1

 

The table above shows the difference in suicide rates between veterans and non-veterans.

 

In August 2016, the VA released another report which consisted of the nation's largest analysis of veteran suicide. The report reviewed more than 55 million veterans' records from 1979 to 2014 from every state in the nation. The previous report from 2012 was primarily limited to data on veterans who used VHA health services or from mortality records obtained directly from 20 states and approximately 3 million records. Compared to the data from the 2012 report, which estimated the number of Veteran deaths by suicide to be 22 per day, the current analysis indicates that in 2014, an average of 20 veterans a day died from suicide.

 

Veterans Day is less than a month away, so there are a few things you an do beside enjoying your day off:

 

1)    Thank a vet, and consider buying them a meal (which I have done)

2)   Buy those poppies

3)   Fight for increased funding for military vets  Veterans Health Administration - Wikipedia

4)   Do NOT vote for Donald Trump, who thinks that military folks are suckers

5)   Vote for people who support veterans, and get people like Tommy Tuberville out of Congress.