 Something came through there and stopped it. What is it now? Think quickly. Think deeply. Let's go back. When was it you lost your speech? Had your trouble talking? Go back quickly. It seems that I first noticed it on a boat. On a boat? Coming over. It first started with a nest. And a fellow's left at me. I don't know why they left until I started. Well, let's start with that S. Let's go back to that S now. What were you thinking then? What was in your mind then? Right now? No, then. On a boat? Yes, with that S. Well, you couldn't say that S right? Yes. Yes. Fourth side. Fourth side. Fourth side. Fourth side of the ship. What side's that? That would be the left side. Left side, that's right. Yeah, remember? Of course, we were up there that afternoon and we saw the fishes and we had some flying fishes. I came down and he said, I was telling the fellow underneath me about the forts that I had seen, some flying fishes on the fourth side. He tried telling them about the flying fishes and he stumbled over the S sound. And the fellows laughed at him. Think hard. S. S. What does S remind him of? S. S. He remembers. It is the sound he fears. The sound of death in combat. The sound of a German 88 high explosive shell coming in. Now it is possible to proceed to the basic method of psychiatric treatment. Discussion and understanding of the underlying causes of his symptom. As the weeks pass, the therapy begins to show its effect. The shock and stress of war are starting to wear off. For these men are blessed with the natural regenerative powers of youth. Now they are living less in the past and more in the present. Sometimes they think of the future. The war years must be put aside and the responsibilities of peace must be considered. A man might open a filling station or a hardware store. Or he can buy a few acres of land and raise some chickens. He might even go back to school. Visitors day. Now the men resume their contact with the world outside. These are the people they are coming back to whose lives are bound up with theirs. Without their understanding, all that has been accomplished in the last few weeks can be torn down. With it, their return to life can be doubly swift and sure. Classes in groups, psychotherapy continue. The men are thinking of themselves in relation to society. How will they fit into the post-war pattern? How will the worry receive them? You fellows have had an opportunity to be home with your family since you've returned from overseas. Have you noticed any change in the various members of your family toward you? And their reactions toward you? Well, I found out that for four years of absence, it only took me the second day. They would be really relaxed and I would write chummy again with my dad. Talked about the old neighborhood and new changes. I don't know, it surprised me. You feel that your family has to be taught how to treat you when you come back? No, absolutely not. How do you want to be treated by a family? The same I was treated before I went into the service. No, it's different. You don't want to be treated any differently, no? I was talking to one man and I said, what do you think of us fellows that come back with psychoneurosis anxiety state? And I said, you can see that we're not crazy by any means. He said, well, my, before I come out here to see, he says, my first impression was like in Bellevue. He said, fellows from the last war, they're completely maniacs. He said, that was my first impression. I wondered if, I mean, the great percentage of the people are going to be like them when we get out. That is a common concern among servicemen who have developed nervous conditions during their stay in the army as to what the public is going to think about them. Undoubtedly, there will be people on the outside who won't have any understanding of the condition, who may think of it as being a rather shameful condition. That's why we're having an educational program, trying to educate the public into understanding. Unfortunately, most of you fellows have gone through some very severe stresses in the army. Stresses that civilians are rarely subjected to. In civilian life, you can avoid serious stresses. If a civilian, the average civilian, were subjected to similar stresses, he undoubtedly would have developed the same type of nervous condition that most of you fellows developed. All of us have our so-called breaking point. In a survey, outside showed that civilians on the whole were more nervous than soldiers on Park Avenue, for instance, where some of your richest people live. Most of the patients are people who suffer from nervous disorders and if the doctor won't give them a pill, why they'll go out and say, well, he's not a good doctor. So, therefore, they're given pills and they take them at home. They take these pills at home because the hospitals are too full. If the hospitals were empty, they'd be in the sanatorium and so forth. Having been through a number of these discussions, like the other men have, I know that we have learned the basics of how we've gotten nervous. Some of us through combat and some of us by not being in combat. And I think, and I'm sure that we have a better understanding of our conditions and I'm pretty grateful of being here at Mason General Hospital, like a lot of fellows are. I just so happens I couldn't walk and they made me walk. I couldn't walk when I arrived and I was here 24 hours and they made me walk. I feel pretty grateful of getting my limbs back. But that doesn't mean I'm driving that. It's that I know that when I got out of here and the other fellows do too, we're going to try our best to make ourselves as best we can. And we feel more confident than the grasp is nervous situation has come about us. And we want to show people that we can do things on our own on the outside where we've been in the hospital for the nerves or whatever we've been, where we've lost my arm or leg, that we can be just as good as anybody else. All I want is that they give us a chance to prove our equality, like they said they were. I hope they keep their promise. That's all I vote. Would you make it a point to tell your employer that you were a psycho neurotic? Well, if he's an intelligent man, which most well-known employers are that own large concerns, why he's going to react the same as any other normal human being would, he's going to say it's absolutely possible. And the man right now looks all right. I'll try him out. But you may run into employers who are not that broad-minded or intelligent. Yes, sir. And I'll sell myself to them. How about you, Huffmeister? Do you have any plans about jobs? And do you have any fears about getting a job? Well, if they're whatsoever, they'll come to the job waiting for you. You have your job waiting for you. I think it comes down to this, doesn't it, that most of you fellows feel that you ought to be honest with your employer, that you have nothing to hide, nothing to be ashamed of. Isn't that the general attitude? Yes, sir. That's the way it is. Your time in the service was not entirely wasted. You have learned a great deal in the service. For instance, the great many jobs and tasks that you've learned to do in the service that you have had absolutely no contact with in the past. You've also learned to work in groups, something that every soldier learns to do very early in his military career. This definitely will be of much value to you in your future civilian employment.