Your Average Vet is Not a Whacko Rambo

But, to read the coverage of the killing of Ranger Margaret Anderson on Jan. 1 at Mt. Rainier National Park by Benjamin Colton Barnes, a 24 year-old Army Iraq veteran, you would think every Afghanistan or Iraq war veteran was an emotional powder keg ready to explode in a murderous rage.

Alex Horton, an Army Iraq veteran, torpedoes this ill-informed coverage in a post on the Veteran Affairs Department's VAntage Point official blog titled "The Mt. Rainier Shooting and PTSD: How the Media Got It Wrong."

Horton did some good reporting in this piece, and points out that Barnes served his Iraq tour in a headquarters communications company and did not receive a Combat Action Badge "indicating he probably never came under fire in Iraq."

So much for the PTSD-crazed combat vet theory.

Horton took particular exception to reporting by M. Alex Johnson at MSNBC, who linked Barnes' rage to conditions at Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Tacoma, Wash. Johnson described that base as "the most troubled base in the entire U.S. military, with multiple criminal and military investigations under way into troops' behavior and the quality of the medical and mental health care for service members returning from the war."

Horton, who served his entire Army tour with units stationed at that base commented in his blog:

"I was based at JBLM my entire Army enlistment. And I know dozens of those just like me -- representing a larger sample than that from which Johnson and his cohorts seemed to draw. All of us are men and most of us are between 25 and 35 years old, like Barnes. And many of us dealt with the residual effects of combat trauma, like hyper-vigilance, an inconveniently short temper, and substance abuse. As far as I know, none are guilty of murder or any violent crimes."

Horton concluded, "Unless evil spirits inhabit the base, I see no connection between that facility and the murderous tendency of one of its former dwellers."

Amen, Alex.

The ill-informed reporting on Barnes is déjà vu for me. When I came back from service in the Marines in Vietnam, I confronted the same kind of media sterotyping of vets.

Let's call a halt to this practice -- immediately.