Solider Brings C-4 Explosives on Plane, Claims He 'Didn’t Know'
Could PTSD Be the Cause?
A solider that returned to the United States from Afghanistan this past spring was arrested on Saturday for trying to bring explosives onto an airplane in Texas.
Trey Scott Atwater, 30, attempted, perhaps unknowingly, to bring C-4 explosives in his carry-on bag on a flight from Texas to his native North Carolina.
Atwater, a recent returnee from his third deployment in Afghanistan, told authorities that he "didn't know" of the explosives in his bag.
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Members of U.S. military forces routinely use the powerful C-4 explosives for operations in the country and Atwater told the F.B.I. that his Afghanistan Special Forces unit was always required to carry two blocks of C-4 on them.
Although Atwater claims to have been unaware of the explosives in his bag, he was stopped earlier in the month at another airport in North Carolina over attempting to board a plane carrying smoke grenades in his bag.
After his arrest, Atwater told officials at the Transportation Security Administration that he “forgot” to mention the Dec. 24 incident.
The explosives incident occurred the same day Benjamin Colton Barnes, a 24-year-old Iraqi war veteran, is believed to have killed a park ranger at Mount Rainier National Park in Washington. Police officials also believe that Barnes shot and wounded four other people at a New Year’s Eve party near Seattle.
The recent incidences are conjuring up questions about military forces and the impact post-traumatic stress disorder is having on former combatants.
“We have to assume that war changes people. We need to assume that coming back with a traumatic brain injury or diagnosed with PTSD is very likely,” Noe Foster, the CEO of The Strategist told kivt.com back in August 2010 regarding another violent incident with a PTSD-diagnosed veteran.
However, not everyone is keen on linking aggressive and violent behavior to PTSD, and some believe that other factors must be assessed.
U.S. military veteran and author of ”The War I Always Wanted,” Brandon Friedman told MSNBC.com that the link can be troubling.
Friedman said there is an obvious link between working in a combat zone and PTSD but added “having PTSD doesn’t signify a propensity to murder Americans.”
