I was recently talking with a veterns gathering outside the local grocery center...I asked the Vietnam veterns if they'd ever got up during the middel of the night and look out the window or have trouble sleeping. I was surprised when about 75% of them said "Yes." The reason I'm asking this is because the few years before my father died he would do the very thing. I got suspicious of it being some kind of sleeping disorder untill I heard a similiar story a few months ago. Anyone know or have the similiar conditions, or could someone enlighten me with some information on this subject?

Is that just from post-traumatic stress disorder?

Most likely...the reason (I presume) they look out the window is because in Vietnam you always had to be alert or have your butt overran by viet soldiers. The Americans knew the Vietnese were some of the most proficient soldiers considering they may carried light weaponary and were fighting on their own terrian. My father was highly exposed to agent orange. Also, I had a uncle who died from a cancer that was caused by agent orange.

Such a sad thing...agent orange killed many Vietnamese too

Yes I believe it is...thought dosent just happen to war veterans.

There is an X-Files episode, "Sleepless," that seems to have a smiliarity to what you're discussing. When researching the paranormal phenomena associated with the Phu Bai Massacre during the Viet Nam War, Chris Carter and the writers discovered some disturbing experimental medical procedures that the military performed on a select group of soldiers.

Of course, Carter and the writers fictionalized the story because that's what they do, however, that doesn't mean the crux of the story is complete fiction.

No, just not war vets. Lots of people get it.



"I haven't really slept for twenty years. I lie down, but I don't sleep. I'm always watching the door, the window, then back to the door. I get up at least five times to walk my perimeter, sometimes it's ten or fifteen times. There's always something within my reach, maybe a baseball bat or a knife, at every door... Once when my daughter was younger and I was that way, she came up behind me and before I knew it I had her by the throat up against the wall. I can still see her eyes. I put her down and just walked out of the house without saying anything to anybody and didn't come back for a week."
Anonymous account from a Vietnam veteran (Shay, 1995).

Of the three million men and women who served in the Vietnam war, an estimated one-third of the men (over 960,000 men) and one-fourth of the women (over 1,900 women) developed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in response to their war experiences. About 15 percent of these men and 8.5 percent of these women still continue to suffer from this disorder (Kulka et al., 1990). PTSD is a psychological disorder that can occur when an individual experiences or witnesses a traumatic life-endangering event, such as a war or a natural disaster. Those suffering from this disorder seem unable to completely distance themselves from the memory of the event and perhaps because of this, they appear to experience the stress associated with the event over and over. This heightened level of stress can continue for an extended period of time lasting from several months to many years.

Individuals with PTSD typically display three major types of symptoms. One cluster of symptoms is associated with the continued re-experience of the traumatic event. This type of symptom may manifest itself in the form of flashbacks and nightmares in which individuals relive the traumatic event. They may also display acute outbursts of aggressive behavior that occur in response to a stimulus associated with the original traumatic event. This type of behavior is illustrated in the account given above: The Vietnam veteran, believing the person behind him was a Viet Cong ready to ambush, physically attacked his daughter.

Perhaps in response to this continual re-experience of the event, individuals with PTSD also tend to have a second cluster of symptoms characterized by a heightened state of physiological arousal. They often report difficulty sleeping and a need to be constantly vigilant in case the event might re-occur. Thus, they spend night after night with little to no sleep, as was also described in the account above. Physiological symptoms of the individual may also include heightened respiration and heart rate, and displays of an exaggerated startle response.

In an attempt to control these memories and feelings, individuals with PTSD tend to experience a third cluster of symptoms. This third cluster is characterized by efforts to avoid thoughts or feelings associated with the traumatic event. This cluster may also entail an avoidance of situations associated with the event. Individuals with PTSD may have a decreased interest in important activities and a feeling of detachment or estrangement from others (Joseph et al., 1997). This avoidance strategy is rarely successful however, and individuals continue to experience heightened stress and recurrent memories of the traumatic event.

While the attempt to reduce PTSD symptoms by avoidance is clearly ineffectual, treatment strategies can help those affected with this disorder. Treatment approaches for PTSD that have been suggested in literature include systematic desensitization, implosive therapy, cognitive therapy, and group therapy. Current research is being conducted to establish not only the efficacy of each of these approaches but also to determine if one approach is more effective than the others (Joseph et al., 1997). Certainly, the results of research on treatment for PTSD cannot come too soon for the thousands of Vietnam veterans still experiencing this disorder twenty-five years after the end of the Vietnam War.
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Some of the accounts I've read about Vietnam are just unimaginable.

I watched my father rot and die from mestastic lymphanoma from Agent Orange. It was hateful. The compound is called 4-2D or 2-4D I forget exactly and is still used as broadleaf killer by "Truegreen Chemlawn" and other lawn treatment companies in a diluted form. They also spray it on golf courses. The military never diluted it like they were supposed to and sprayed 1 acre with enough to cover a mile. I remember dad saying it was like they were dumping buckets on him.

Lapi'che

This reminds me of the movie Jacob's Ladder. IT was a fictional story, but the idea that was behind it (sort of) dealt with chemical warfare and PTS.

That's horrible. Agent Orange has been linked to so many negative health effects and deformities.
I have to check that film out btw.

that's terrible!

Realities of war. Humans will always find a way to kill each other more efficiently.

Trying to research to where he was stationed but it's going to take some time.
All I know was the place was like a desert...they wiped out the vegitation with agent orange.

There's a girl at my church whose father was in Vietnam. She's 21, but looks as though she's around 13 or 14 due to the effects of agent orange. 'tis sad.

I know I probably have some health effects from it too. I used to have thoughts of extreme violence.

I watched another farmer I know dump it just about straight in a field infested with dock and chickweed. It dropped the stuff in an hour. It causes a form of cancer in plants by stretching and deforming the cells. It is made by the same Japanese company that makes "Roundup" which is another form of it. They never banned the stuff. Just changed its name. I want nothing to do with it and rather hack the dock out before it seeds or burn it after it does. I feel the same way you do about the health effects. I was so scared when my horse farrier Terry, who was a marine in Nam started getting sick after he got older that I put cigarettes down and never picked them up again. I thought they might trigger something that was passed from my father. This thread also has me thinking a lot when my mother sister and I came home from shoping that day and found him.
'Military.com' might be able to help you with his info. If you have the info from his DD214 you can sign on and use that to get the rest. You can also contact some of his old buddies through that site if they use it or are registered.

Lapi'che

I meant "Though it dosen't..." I know it dosent only happen to war vets, I know someone who has it cus she was abused by her father.

It is post traumatic stress disorder. Moe senior suffered from this.

My cousin who is a drill instructor (D.I.) was on a electric trigger .50 in Iraq. He has PTSD so bad it's pathetic. We stay on the puter so late I can't keep my eyes open. He needs some serious R&R or should be discharged for mental health reasons.

Lapi'che