Back from Iraq with Plenty of Problems

Meanwhile, ATF agents were collecting evidence from the apartment. This included a pound of gunpowder, PVC pipe glue and fittings, a four-inch cannon fuse, a box of cut tacks, and several broken beer bottles — material they figured was for shrapnel. Agents also found "an electronic remote detonator affixed to a residential doorbell lying on top of the kitchen refrigerator." Timmons asked the agents if he would be able to get any of the stuff back. Especially his GMC drill. He really liked that drill.
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Volberding, a private attorney who's in the Army Reserve and a major in the Judge Advocate General Corps, says prosecutors felt they stopped what could have been another Virginia Tech. He points out that the only thing they had to go on was Timmons.

He believes that, even if Miles suffers from bipolar disorder without post-traumatic stress disorder, Miles's combat experience was certainly a factor. As far as he and Miles's family are concerned, there are two injustices here: Training a man to fight and kill for his country, then refusing to fix him when he's broken; and casting him into a criminal justice system that is not equipped to treat the mentally ill.

Seeking leniency in Miles's sentencing, Voldberding collected sworn statements from 38 friends and relatives attesting to Miles's character before the war. These included Boy Scout leaders, elementary schoolteachers and clergy. One glowing statement came from Robert Allen Jr., the administrator of a pre-vocational center for mentally retarded adults in Shreveport. He wrote that Miles volunteered to play Santa Claus at the center on at least two occasions.

"He gave out gifts, went from table to table talking to clients, made snapshots with each person and generally helped the MR clients to have a positive and memorable experience," Allen wrote. "Very few 18-19-year-olds would have reached out to others this way."

Which is all well and good, but John Ratcliffe, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas, is quick to point out that "prior military service is not a license to commit crimes." (Lisa Flournoy, the prosecutor who handled the case, declined to comment for this story).

Ratcliffe says he was well aware of the campaign to paint Miles as a man in need of treatment, not incarceration. He says he received countless e-mails, letters and phone calls urging him to drop the charges. He also received calls from the media and he told at least one newspaper that he was not in the position to give Miles "a pass" — a rather odd statement, since, as the head prosecutor, he's the one who decides whether or not to charge someone.

He also mentioned that Miles certainly had the right to present a PTSD-based defense before a jury — a right he waived when he never got that diagnosis.

"Mr. Miles, like every criminal defendant, had every right and opportunity to tell and convince a jury that he did not commit a crime or that he had some medical condition that excused his crime," Ratcliffe says. "Mr. Miles chose not to present evidence at trial to justify or excuse his conduct. Mr. Miles chose to plead guilty to the crime that he committed, and he was sentenced according to the law."

Moreover, he added that "my understanding is medical experts examined Mr. Miles and reviewed his records and history and those experts determined that...he did not have post-traumatic stress disorder, that he is in fact bipolar, but that is a condition that is not and cannot be caused by military service."

(Ratcliffe is correct: Bipolar disorder is genetic. However, military service can potentially exacerbate preexisting conditions. Sleep deprivation, for example, can trigger manic episodes.)

One stumbling block in this area is the U.S. Department of Defense-mandated Post-Deployment Health Assessment given upon demobilization. To start with, the assessment only screens for PTSD, depression and substance abuse. It only asks about any troubling thoughts a person has had in the last month. To really drive that one home, "in the last month" is in all caps. Any nightmares or feelings of detachment from others that occurred, say, 32 days earlier instead of 31 do not count.

According to joint Department of Defense/Department of Veterans Affairs guidelines, service members who respond positively to at least three out of four specific questions may be at risk for PTSD. However, DOD health care providers make the final call as to who in the at-risk population is flagged for further evaluation. (A 2004 study in The New England Journal of Medicine estimates that 15 percent of service members deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan may develop PTSD. The U.S. Government Accountability Office has used that percentage in its analysis of VA services).