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Brande Rathbun
Midland MBA
BUS 631 – Management & Ethics
2/27/18
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THE MILITARY AND VETERAN’S CAUSE
Identify a personal ethical business dilemma that you are committed to addressing. Analyze your dilemma through different
lenses and explain what concerns or intrigues you about it? Describe specifically what actions you intend to take and why?
What are your intended outcomes?
My personal ethical dilemma is concerning the Military. This issue has had a direct impact on my
life as I’m the wife of a 11+ year U.S. Army Reserve Veteran. We’ve been married for 9 years, and during
this time he’s struggled with many physical effects from his time in the military, with 6/11 years on active
duty. He is a 4-time combat veteran with tours including Kosovo, Bosnia, and two back-to-back tours in
Iraq in the first two years of the OIF (Operation Iraqi Freedom) war. PTSD has been a very sensitive subject
in my house in the past few years. My husband sustained a number of injuries while in the Military. He
hurt his back, acquired several hernias, injured his elbow, shoulder, had several rounds of stitches from
his scalp to his fingers, rounding it out with a 50-caliber machine gun round blowing up in his leg due to
faulty (old) rounds. Needless to say, the mental health was a very low priority, but had a similar impact
on relationships and his life once he returned home.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs defines PTSD as “a mental health condition that develops
after directly experiencing or indirectly witnessing a violent or accidental life-threatening event.’ The
body’s natural response to traumatic events varies and can include insomnia, anxiety, irritability or
involuntary intrusive recall (nightmares and “flashbacks”). The persistence of these responses can lead to
feelings of alienation, diminished interest, and ultimately a diagnosis of PTSD.
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One of the call outs in this
article was that the most recent Iraq and Afghanistan wars have called our service men and women over
multiple times for multiple tours, putting them at a much great risk for PTSD. This is due to exposure to
combat and life-threatening situations, as compared to the Vietnam war or other situations where the
experience is a one-time tour of duty or in isolation (e.g. Robbery, Terrorist Attacks).
My husband has experienced all of the above symptoms of PTSD over the course of his exit from
the Military until now. Some of the symptoms have become less severe over time, as he’s learned to
adjust and establish work-arounds for many of the symptoms that present. He’s enlisted some coping
mechanisms, but has never received any professional counseling upon exiting the Military to support him.
Beyond their suggestion to “not drive” and “mandatory 2 mos. paid vacation” upon returning to the U.S.,
the Military did not do a lot for his looming PTSD symptoms.
One ethical dilemma is the degree to which PTSD is accepted and evaluated by the military, as
well as what support they have in place for those transitioning out. Or even to the degree to which support
is made available for much later on when more symptoms present or don’t resolve on their own. My
husband has struggled with going back to the VA to claim his injuries and PTSD issues due to poor medical
staff/treatment and the time it takes to file/resolve/receive any claims or communications. Another
reason he hesitates is the culture within the military to “pull yourself up by the bootstraps” and keep
moving, surviving. There are so many service men and women who don’t make it home, or do in shambles,
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http://www.dbadocket.org/ethics/ptsd-brooke-meyer/
Brande Rathbun
Midland MBA
BUS 631 – Management & Ethics
2/27/18
and he believes he is NOT one of them or deserving of any post-service support in this way. The stigma is
slowly being removed, but similar to many other workplace cultures, getting labeled with a mental health
condition is not a good thing. Many veterans have filed claims for PTSD, and my husband believes he does
not need to do this, while I disagree. His point of view stems from so many veterans that claim PTSD, but
never even saw “real combat” like he and many of his colleagues did overseas. He believes they claim it
for the disability benefits given for “trauma” and ultimately for a paycheck. He is very proud and doesn’t
believe he needs to get this to improve his quality of life.
He’s been advised by friends and even family to get evaluated, and they encourage him to see a
private doctor first - as the military VA doctors tend to minimize the symptoms the claimants are
experiencing, and thus reducing their chance for benefits. How can this be? If our country truly supported
veterans while overseas and also when returning home – why does a PTSD diagnosis go unchecked for
many years? Why do they make it so difficult to receive support to treat PTSD? Next, why do the veterans
have to self-identify for PTSD, rather the Military conduct more in-depth checks with an estimated 30%
suffering from PTSD after the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts?
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You can appreciate this is a passionate
subject for me, as it affects almost every aspect of our lives.
I want to examine this through a few ethical lenses, and many apply to this topic. My husband’s
reluctance to consider himself for VA benefits in treatment for PTSD comes from the ethical lens of Virtue.
He is principled and does what he believes is right, leading him to be the type of person he wants to be.
