Broken Country Broken Soldier

Broken Country Broken Soldier

Elegy for a Broken Soldier

"Nothing in my army training had prepared me for what happened in Jerusalem in February 1965." In Chris McQuaid's stunning memoir, Elegy for a Broken Soldier, a traumatic event led to his Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Music became the only respite that provides him solace. Chris was a member of the Irish Army guard of honour for the visit of US President John F. Kennedy to Dublin in June 1963. With the cheers of the crowds lining the presidential route still ringing in his ears, he felt "ten feet tall" as he prepared for his first UN peacekeeping mission to the Congo. On a UN mission to Cyprus in 1965, trauma changed Chris's life forever, marking the beginning of his PTSD. In Lebanon in 1980, his life was threatened, and the shock effectively ended his military career. Neither event originated on the battlefield, but from within the Irish Army. Despite severe depression and suicidal thoughts, Chris continued his education and returned to the service to become a commissioned officer. He left the army in 1986 with a glowing service record. A long legal wrangle and a succession of psychiatric and psychological assessments have led to even greater health problems, but Chris has survived it all.

Mending Broken Soldiers

Guy R. Hasegawa presents the first volume to explore the wartime provisions made for amputees in need of artificial limbs—programs that were the forebears of modern governmental efforts to assist in the rehabilitation of wounded service members. Hasegawa offers a comprehensive look at the artificial-limb industry, including detailed descriptions of the ingenious designs employed by manufacturers; illustrations and photographs of period prosthetics; accounts of the rapid advancement of medical technology during the Civil War; and in-depth examinations of the companies that manufactured limbs for soldiers and bid for contracts, including at least one still in existence today. An intriguing account of innovation, determination, humanitarianism, and the devastating toll of battle, Mending Broken Soldiers provides a fascinating glimpse into groundbreaking military health programs during the most tumultuous years in American history.