SAS WHEEL OF DEATH
Troops have PTSD after cycle of war and terror
to change the culture within the SAS before a member kills himself. He was moved to talk to us after Marine Alex Tostevin, 28, left, a member of the Navy’s SAS equivalent the Special Boat Service, was found dead in a suspected suicide. An inquest is yet to be held. The sergeant revealed there was a “Don’t ask, don’t tell” culture over PTSD after being diagnosed with a mental inside the Hereford-based SAS. illness. And more than 47,000 serving
And he confirmed special forces troops have been diagnosed within the soldiers were reluctant to seek past 10 years. help. He said: “We all know Describing his own
If you admit that if you admit to struggling torment the sergeant said: mentally and get medically “After my third tour of
a mental struggle downgraded you’re Afghanistan I had effectively finished. trouble sleeping, I was
you’re effectively “No one is really going drinking too much, to trust you on operations arguing with my family.
finished again. So you either return I was like a hair trigger. to your old unit or face being “One night I woke up medically discharged.” thrashing around and
The revelations follow the disclosure punched my wife in the face. She was by the MOD that over 13,000 military very forgiving but said I needed help. veterans are now receiving pensions “I went to see a civvy psychologist, but only spoke to her on the condition that she did not tell the Army.”
In 2002 SAS veteran Charles “Nish” Bruce died when he leaped from a plane without a parachute.
In 1998 Frank Collins, a hero of the 1980 Iranian Embassy siege who became a clergyman, committed suicide. Both are believed to have had PTSD.
An MOD spokesman said: “We take the mental wellbeing of our personnel extremely seriously.
“We have increased spending on mental health to £22million a year and set up a 24/7 mental health helpline so there is always somewhere to turn.”