SHOCKED, EXHAUSTED, AND INJURED: THE CANADIAN MILITARY AND VETERAN’S EXPERIENCE OF TRAUMA FROM 1914 TO 2014 A Thesis Submitted to the College of Graduate Studies and Research In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy In the Department of History University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon By: Adam Montgomery © Copyright Adam Montgomery, September 2015. All rights reserved Permission to Use In presenting this thesis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a Postgraduate degree from the University of Saskatchewan, I agree that the Libraries of this University may make it freely available for inspection. I further agree that permission for copying of this thesis in any manner, in whole or in part, for scholarly purposes may be granted by the professor or professors who supervised my thesis work or, in their absence, by the Head of the Department or the Dean of the College in which my thesis work was done. It is understood that any copying or publication or use of this thesis or parts thereof for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. It is also understood that due recognition shall be given to me and to the University of Saskatchewan in any scholarly use which may be made of any material in my thesis. Request for permission to copy or to make other use of material in this thesis in whole or part should be addressed to: Head of the Department of History Room 522, Arts Building 9 Campus Drive University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 5A5 i ABSTRACT The Canadian military and veterans have a long history of dealing with psychological trauma caused by war and peacekeeping. Over the past century views about trauma among physicians, military leaders, society, and veterans’ themselves have been shaped by medical theories, predominant views about the ideal soldier and man, and the nation’s role in international affairs. Since the First World War, major conflicts and peacekeeping operations have been responsible for distinct shifts in how trauma is conceptualized, named, and experienced by Canadian soldiers and the public. Canadian historians have examined this subject by looking at particular wars, most notably the First World War, but no attempt has been made to provide a monograph-length study of military trauma over the past century. This thesis utilizes several lenses – medical, social, and cultural – to explore how conceptions of trauma changed from 1914 to 2014, how such changes affected veterans in their civilian life, and the interactions between medical and popular knowledge, military culture, and veterans’ lived experiences. With a particular emphasis on the latter, it uses oral interviews with veterans of the post-Cold War, government reports, medical literature, and national newspapers to track shifts in consciousness about trauma and its social and medical treatment. It argues that despite numerous changes in medical thought and popular understandings of trauma, stigmas about psychological illness persisted, and that masculine ideals inherent in 1914 were still present, albeit in an altered form, one-hundred years later. It also argues that the Canadian veteran’s experience demonstrates that from 1914 to 2014, trauma consistently oscillated between being a medical entity and a metaphorical representation of war, peacekeeping, veterans’ socio-economic struggles, and national identity. This thesis takes advantage of a historically unique openness in the Canadian military since the year 2000 to contribute to a growing literature about trauma in Canadian military history and society. ii Acknowledgements I am indebted to numerous people for their help during the research and writing of this project. First and foremost I wish to thank my supervisor Dr. Erika Dyck for her unwavering support and guidance, and for helping me to “see the forest for the trees” on numerous occasions. I would also like to thank my committee members, Drs. Valerie Korinek, Bill Waiser, and Camelia Adams for their constructive input throughout this process, as well as my external examiner, Dr. Mark Humphries. Thanks also to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council for helping fund this study. There are too many veterans and Canadian Armed Forces members who aided me to thank individually, nevertheless I would like to acknowledge those who were crucial to this project’s completion. Thanks to Dr. Allan English and Brigadier-General (ret.) Joe Sharpe for providing me their recollections, input, and some material unavailable elsewhere. Thank you also to Lieutenant-Colonel (ret.) Stéphane Grenier for his reminiscences, insightful thoughts about trauma, and correspondence throughout the past many months. Most kind thanks as well to Master Warrant Officer (ret.) Barry Westholm for sharing his story, discussing military culture, and pointing me in the right direction more than a few times. To all of those who freely and courageously shared their personal battles with trauma and subsequent journey, I wish to say: this work could not have been done without you, thank you. Lastly, I would like to thank my family for their ongoing support, and for always believing in me. Thank you especially to Stephanie Bellissimo for being my rock and friend throughout the past four years, and thank you to Saydie for all of the support she gave, even if she is unaware of it. To anyone I may have overlooked: my sincerest thanks for your help. iii List of Abbreviations APA: American Psychiatric Association ARTAL: Adjustment Reaction to Adult Life BOI: Croatia Board of Inquiry CAF: Canadian Armed Forces CAR: Canadian Airborne Regiment CBC: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation CDS: Chief of the Defence Staff CEF: Canadian Expeditionary Force CF: Canadian Forces (Used interchangeably with CAF and “Forces”) CFB: Canadian Forces Base CISD: Critical Incident Stress Debriefing CJP: Canadian Journal of Psychiatry CMHA: Canadian Mental Health Association CNCMH: Canadian National Committee for Mental Hygiene CPA: Canadian Psychiatric Association CSS: Combat Service Support DND: Department of National Defence DPNH: Department of Pensions and National Health DSCR: Department of Soldiers’ Civil Reestablishment DSM: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders DVA: Department of Veterans’ Affairs GAP: Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry GSR: Gross Stress Reaction GWS: Gulf War Syndrome iv IPSC: Integrated Personnel Support Centre JPSU: Joint Personnel Support Unit MHC: Military Hospitals Commission MHCHC: Military Hospitals and Convalescent Homes Commission MND: Minister of National Defence MOD: (British) Ministry of Defence MPCC: Military Police Complaints Commission NATO: North Atlantic Treaty Organization NDHQ: National Defence Headquarters NIMH: (United States) National Institute for Mental Health NVC: New Veterans Charter OSI: Operational Stress Injury OSISS: Operational Stress Injury Social Support OTSSC: Operational Trauma and Stress Support Centre PPCLI: Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry (Battalion numbers placed before, e.g. 2PPCLI) PSC: Peer Support Coordinator PTSD: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder RCAMC: Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps RDC: Research Diagnostic Criteria SCONDVA: Standing Committee on National Defence and Veterans’ Affairs SISIP: Service Income Security Insurance Plan TLD: Third Location Decompression UN: United Nations UNAMIR: United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda UNEF: United Nations Emergency Force v UNPROFOR: United Nations Protection Force VA: (United States) Veterans Administration VAC: Veterans Affairs Canada VVAW: Vietnam Veterans Against the War vi TABLE OF CONTENTS PERMISSION TO USE i ABSTRACT ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv TABLE OF CONTENTS vii INTRODUCTION: TRAUMA, CULTURE, AND HISTORY 1 CHAPTER 1: A SHOCKING INTRODUCTION TO TRAUMA 34 CHAPTER 2: BATTLE EXHAUSTION AND MEDICAL MOVEMENTS 75 CHAPTER 3: VIETNAM, TRAUMA, AND RECOGNITION 115 CHAPTER 4: PEACEKEEPING, POLITICS, AND PERCEPTIONS 144 CHAPTER 5: BREAKING DOWN THE WALL 177 CHAPTER 6: NEW MILLENNIUM, NEW REFORMS, OLD PROBLEMS 227 CONCLUSION: ENDURING STRUGGLES AND ENDURING HOPE 275 BIBLIOGRAPHY 293 vii INTRODUCTION: TRAUMA, CULTURE, AND HISTORY Barry Westholm joined the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) in 1982 in London, Ontario. Unlike numerous comrades, Westholm was not a “base brat” from a military family. Instead he deemed himself an “accidental soldier.”1 As a youth that got into “a fair bit of trouble,” the military helped him occupy his idle hands and satiate his need for adventure.2 He trained first at Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Cornwallis in Nova Scotia, and then CFB Borden in Ontario, ultimately finishing his apprenticeship training as a vehicle technician at CFB North Bay in Ontario in 1985.3 After completing his training, Westholm was stationed at Canadian Forces Europe in Lahr, West Germany, in 1987, where he remained for three years, giving him the opportunity to witness firsthand the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989. Although the Cold War was over by 1991, the 1990s brought no rest for the CAF, which saw its personnel committed to a number of peacekeeping missions around the world. In 1992 Westholm went on his first United Nations (UN) mission, to Cambodia as part of the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC). While there he experienced the “sickly sweet smell of decaying bodies, garbage, excrement, [and] filth,” toured the killing fields of Pol Pot, and, on one occasion, had a rocket-propelled grenade pointed at the window of his