Does anyone remember Sgt. John Russell?  He shot and killed five US soldiers at Camp Liberty in May 2009.  He killed his psychologist.  It was big news for a couple days, but now you can barely find it on the web.

Lapses Found in Case of Sgt. John Russell

I have read many articles about Sgt. Russell, but I still have no knowledge of his religious beliefs.

US soldiers are facing an epidemic of suicides.  The current model of sending the same people back to tours of duty in war zones time and time again is a disaster.  If your goal was to create PTSD in your troops, this would be the recipe. 

Doctors in the military are pressured to clear people to return to combat duty.  However, it actually doesn't matter whether the physician has cleared the soldier or not, as the ultimate decision is made by the commanding officer. 

In particular, when I was active duty I refused to clear a sergeant to go to Iraq due to ongoing medical problems.  That's when I found out it didn't matter what I, his doctor, had to say about his medical condition.  His commander felt his condition was not serious enough, so off he went to Iraq.  He barely lasted two weeks until he was sent back.  I received an angry phone call from his physician in Iraq asking why I had cleared someone not fit for duty.  I got angry right back, told her to read the damn paperwork, and promptly hung up on her.  When this soldier returned stateside he was promptly discharged by a medical board. 

I don't know about the rest of the military, but from what I saw during my time, the medical corps is run by incompetent fools.  Physicians in the military don't have the necessary autonomy to provide excellent medical treatment.

But religion does?

It has been over twenty four hours since another mass murder in the US involving a lone gunman.  However, there has barely been any mention of gun control.  And there are some would have us bring back the Japanese internment camps of WW2, but this time fill them with Muslim US citizens.  I just don't understand what is wrong with the US.  Guns, especially handguns, are designed to kill people.  Religion, while responsible for many deaths throughout history, was essentially designed to save people.  Why do we fear religion, but not guns?

I shared a bit of my experience in the military with my last post, but I have another memory I wish to share.  Even though I was commissioned in the military many years before 9/11, my first week of extended active duty was actually the first week of September, 2001.  I was in a large group of doctors undergoing training before we headed off to our first duty assignment.  We watched 9/11 on the television in our classrooms while our base was on lockdown.  During the next few days we didn't do much, we were on a training base and couldn't go anywhere.  After a few days, when we knew the Taliban and Al Queda were responsible, one of the members of our group stood up to make an announcement.  He was a radiologist who was born in Pakistan, and he was a muslim.  He was a US citizen.  His wife was also going through training with us, and she was also a muslim.  He asked to address the class and he did so in a pained voice full of anguish.  He tried to explain to this group of military doctors that Islam was not violent.  The terrorists who attacked us were not representative of his religion.  I admired this man for his courage, but I fear he probably had a difficult time in the military. 

When I got to my first base, my commanding officer was a very devout christian of a traditional sect.  He regularly sent out emails about Christianity.  As the war in Afghanistan grinded on and the Iraq invasion started, many people I worked with made discouraging remarks about muslims openly.  We had prayers before informal meetings.  As a long-time agnostic this environment made me profoundly uncomfortable.

This latest incident has really gotten under my skin, but I feel powerless to do anything.  I also feel a lot of anger that a person can purchase a weapon which allows them to kill and injure so many people.

Nidal Malik Hasan was an Army Psychiatrist.  Although I did not know him, I thought I could provide general background about what his career and service obligations were, and I can also share personal experience of being a doctor in the military.  

He graduated in 1997 with a degree in biochemistry and was in the ROTC.  He then went to the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences (USUHS) in Bethesda, MD.  He graduated from medical school in 2001 (medical school is 4 years).  He then did his residency in psychiatry at Walter Reed (5 years for residency).  He most likely finished that in 2006.  At that point he would have been on active duty at least 9 years, and most likely owed at least seven, and perhaps 9 years more before he would be released.  Medical school at USUHS confers a 7 year commitment, and he may have had extra time for residency.  

I served for four years in the Air Force as a  physician, but I was trained at civilian institutions.  My four year obligation was incurred as a result of the military financing most of my civilian medical education.  Roughly 75 percent of the doctors I worked with hated being in the military and were just biding their time until they could get out.  We were under immense pressure from all sides.  It was extremely difficult to even give average medical care.  Usually you had to settle for less than standard care just to remain sane.  It was an incredibly stressful situation.  I worked with a few good physicians, but in general, military physicians have a different philosophy.  The command structure of the Medical Corps is extremely dysfunctional.

It was much harder for the USUHS grads because they had a longer obligation.  Although many of us were unhappy, there was virtually no way to get out early without ruining your medical career.  For example, there was no option to get out and repay the military for the cost of your education.

After I separated (got out), I heard one of the doctors I worked with allegedly threatened to bring a gun to work and shoot the commander.  I never heard what happened to him, but he probably lost his medical license at the very least.

This doctor must have been under a great deal of stress.  He served at at Walter Reed during the time it was receiving extremely bad publicity in the national press.  He was probably dealing with extra pressure because of the national scrutiny.    I would speculate that he was depressed, suicidal, and must have felt so isolated and hopeless that he saw no other way out.  It is still shocking that he would chose such an abhorrent action.