Dear FRONTLINE,

Thank you for your excellent documentary. It is a magnificent effort at educating those of us who basically would have no idea of what these soldiers have togo through. It should bemade available to our military units everywhere to lessen the despair and loneliness of those who may be going through this same ordeal.

What really makes me mad is that this is happening because we invaded and occupied Iraq based on this administration's lies and deception,and members of this administration are totally unable to consider the real consequences of war. Neither our president or vicepresident have had to confront such issues.

Clara Coen
Chicago, IL

Dear FRONTLINE,

My thought's on your show tonight, while in total support of our present day troop's,it seemed to skim over the importance of our veteran's from WW-2, Korean & Vietnam war's whose Ptsd promblem's as just as intense. Please don't forget us as you attempt to correct these present day failure's in caring for all of us. We don't need welfare, just a little respect, I love my country!

Edward Delgado
Kihei, Hi

FRONTLINE's editors respond:

There is a special video section on the Web site for Soldier's Heart that has veterans of these other wars talking about their experience with war's psychological impact. Also read Vietnam veteran Jim Dooley's powerful interview on this Web site.

Dear FRONTLINE,

I again watched you program about PTSD. Thank you. You were very eloquently about the soldiers, so I would like to add a note about the spreading pool of sorrow this brings to all who dare to love their soldier fathers, boyfriends and husbands. I have loved a Vietnam combat vet for 18 years, most of it wihout understanding why it was so hard, crazy and painful. I have watched his daughter grow up not believing how much her dad loves her, since she sees so much temper, withdrawal and strange anger. My vet had been to counciling and thought he had come to terms, but the rest of us have not. There is no counciling for non-spouses and very little for spouses. I was given a pamphlet at the Vet Center. There are few books, Vet Centers are overworked or staffed with peer councilors (who are great for vets but not for those trying to have relationships with them). They are geared to helping soldiers, not their lovers. (There are so many day-to-day questions: How, for instance, do you to disagree with a man who has overwhelming rage, in response to stress? As a non-spouse, the best and only counciling I had was from a VA hospital receptionist with PTSD. )

Living with PTSD is made worse by not knowing anyone you can share the craziness with (you know you are not with a bad man, but you know most people would never believe it.) When I finally met three other women living with combat vets, we all had the same secret stories, (and mostly no solutions). I hope things will be better for the young wives and girlfriends of Iraq vet, but I do not think change will come before we count all the collateral damage of war. Of course, not going to war would be the best. solution.

Missoula, Montana

Dear FRONTLINE,

A Soldiers Heart brought tears to my eyes. Being that I am a wife of a Marine, who recently served time in Iraq, hit home hard. The psychological toll of this war has tremendously effected my husband, as it has many others. No one will speak up about their feelings when they come back from war . They are taught not to be open. That is a sign of weakness, so they just deal with it.

From the first day my husband came home, I knew he was different. To be called weak because you are seeking help, our troops have seen and done things that we could not even imagine which is part of there job, yet where is there freedom?

BARSTOW, california

Dear FRONTLINE,

One challenge on this story is digging deeper into what KIND of help may be available. I work with a nonprofit human rights group in the field of mental health. We're pro-choice about people's health care decisions - some choose to take psychiatric drugs, some don't. But right now there is an overwhelming, extreme, and overpowering bullying by the pharmaceutical industry and proponents of a "medical model" approach that is extremely intensely drug-oriented.

We're seeing people given five or ten different very powerful psychiatric drugs. Democracy needs to get "hands on" with the mental health care system! The public needs to get familiar with humane alternatives, and the importance of principles like empowerment, self-determination, recovery, human rights, etc. in resilience. One additional benefit: Maybe we'll hear from soldiers something society finally needs to hear.

David Oaks
Eugene, Oregon

Dear FRONTLINE,

While your story points out the disturbing lack of mental health support and care for our nation's veterans at least the military gives them something. I am a disabled police officer myself with ptsd, depression, dissociative disorder and add yet I recive absolutely no medical coverage or mental health coverage assistance at all. NONE not even at an attempt at by my police department to claim a fascade of help. I risked my life for the benefit of our citizens and suffered injuries because of it.

The mental health issuse for police officers is largely hidden from the public view even from disabled officers themselves that want assistance.

webster city, iowa

Dear FRONTLINE,

I was a combat marine,door gunner,in viet nam. it is a difficult struggle coming home and dealing with what you experienced. however it can be done.

use the gi bill, get out that rut you are in.do your best to not live in the past,very difficult,when the war is still going and your not there.

choose possitive people.don't wallow.get on with life,you have earned it and you have a second shot at life you never thought you see.don't waste that second shot, think of it as living for all those who are gone,

tom dunn
shorewood, illI

Dear FRONTLINE,

My father was born July 21, 1920. We buried him September 12, 2005. HE DIED in 1944. He was a WWII medic who had experienced so much death and trauma that it literally drove him crazy. I never knew the person that my father was when he was born. I only knew the one who suffered, was in numerous VA hospitals, over medicated, shock treatments and reminded what a weak person he was to have asked to be sent home during WWII to get mental help. My mother, my brother and I also suffered from this because of his PTSD which drove him to do horrible abusive things.

I support all of the United States Troops and I pray this war will end and another one never to follow. I voted for George Bush, but NEVER again. This government doesn't care what happens to our military men and women. They are being used in Iraq to participate in a religious war in order to make the United States look like a great, powerful nation. When in fact, it has become more and more calis to the needs of the military soldiers and their families. OUR SONS AND DAUGHTERS ARE BEING USED AND ABUSED BY THIS GOVERNMENT. God Bless ALL OF YOU IN WAR !!

Sandra
SanAntonio, Texas

Dear FRONTLINE,

Thank you so much for your program, and I pray you will continue to focus on the issue of how we treat our soldiers and veterans. Unfortunately, the Viet Nam soldiers and vets experienced all that the Iraqi soldiers and vets are. It's irresponsible and unforgivable that the military attitude has not changed more than 35 years later.

Carrollton, Texas

Dear FRONTLINE,

Thank you so much for your excellent program. As the wife of a Viet Nam veteran (2 tours of duty), I lived with PTSD until a life or death situation forced me to take action. My husband has been in combat veterans groups for 7 years in the Bedford, MA VA. Yes, there is a stigma attached to seeking help, but the results have been life saving for both of us.

Thank you for educating the general public about the realities of war.

Donna Rooks
Northborough, MA

Dear FRONTLINE,

my brother chad was just deployed to iraq, and i find myself watching the news daily. i'm petrified every time i hear of another service member dieing in iraq. our mom passed away december 27th 2006,and i can't stop thinking of something happening to chad.

watching your show tonight, i hope it will open some eyes. these young men and women will need all the support we can give them.thenk you frontline!!

rich kisiel
quincy, ma

Dear FRONTLINE,

Thirst i want to tell u all, that this discusion needs to be in the highlights. Every War, Every Soldier, Every single time, will be having troubles with his journey in the war he went.

I'm a War-veteran, 33 years old.. In my country everybody's laughing about the word war-veteran. What i've saw in Srebreniça, nobody knows.. because i don't wanna talk about it, because they think it's all a lie..

i've lost my job, my wife and my son (3 years old) because i have PTSD.. And it won't go away..many times i try to kill myself, because there is no futere for me..Well..

Rember anyone who went to a war-zone.. they fought for not only your peace.. but for the peace of the world.

Gerald Gijsbertsen
Houten (utrecht), the Netherlands

Dear FRONTLINE,

What a surprising program about how the war has affected the lives of so many soldiers and that of their families. I sincerely hope the military institution and the government will find a solution to the prevention of posttraumatic stress disorder and the cure for it when it does occur.

I hope the military officers and men show more understanding and respect for their emotionally traumatized peers - seeing their conditions not as signs of weakness, but as their indomitable spirits fighting for compassion in a world of cruelty, sadness, and death. Finally, I want to thank you, FRONTLINE, for bringing up this serious, yet often neglected, topic of understanding the "soldier's heart."

Roy Z.
Ann Arbor, Michigan

Dear FRONTLINE,

This movie really changed the way that i think about soldiers after they return from war. I have an uncle who returned from Afghanistan and he had asked for a divorce about 3 months after he got back. She thinks that he is acting like a "robot" now that he is back. He has been a changed man ever since he got back. Now i know why he is acting this way, by watching this movie. He is still in the fighting mode and he wont stop until he wants to.

Just like the men who came back from war in Iraq, they still have issues about life now and they act so differently now that they are totally different people. I wish this could stop, but yet i know that men from war turn out to be different because of the tecniques that they had to learn. My aunt really wants it to stop also. This movie, i think, might be the truth behind how the men at war really do react after the war. Thanks for putting this movie out, it really moved me.

jocelyn

Dear FRONTLINE,

I'm a high school student in California in an area where the reality of the war is easily ignored and brushed away. It's a depressing subject and no one seems to pay much attention to it.

I myself was avoiding thinking about it much because of that, but ended up watching you documentary for a history class assignment. It was to watch any movie about a post-WWII event that has had a fairly large affect on the world. I chose this documentary realizing that I had hardly acknowledged the happenings in Iraq, and that perhaps it was time to become more educated on the subject, seeing as it is a national affair that could quite possibly affect people I care about in the near future.

I wanted to thank and compliment you for such an enlightening documentary. It was one that, rather than not being able to focus on, I instead found it making it impossible for me to think of anything else.

I think it's really sad how little these issues are acknowledged in some areas, because in reality, we all need to support the women and men fighting for us. I did find though that there was something lacking, which was representation of women who have served in the war, and the affects it has had on them. Other than that, thank you for bringing to light some of the realities of war.

Palo Alto, California