THE POINT-why Obama mentioned his uncle liberating a concentration camp-PTSD screening & treatment!

Pirate Smile

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Tue May-27-08 07:55 PM
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THE POINT-why Obama mentioned his uncle liberating a concentration camp-PTSD screening & treatment!

Edited on Tue May-27-08 08:31 PM by Pirate Smile

"I had a uncle who was one of the, who was part of the first American troops to go into Auschwitz and liberate the concentration camps, and the story in our family was is that when he came home, he just went up into the attic and he didn�t leave the house for six months, right. Now obviously something had really affected him deeply but at that time there just weren�t the kinds of facilities to help somebody work through that kind of pain. That�s why you know the, this idea of making sure that every single veteran when they are discharged are screened for post traumatic stress disorder and given the mental health services that they need, that�s why its so important."

Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SV1sxq8mqvA&eurl=http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/5/27/185726/969/978/523788

Yes - it was Buchenwald, not Auschwitz. That wasn't the point. Nobody seems to even be pointing out that the issue was, as Obama said "this idea of making sure that every single veteran when they are discharged are screened for post traumatic stress disorder and given the mental health services that they need.."

Obama's World War II history

Earlier, the Republican National Committee pounced on Obama's improbable statement that an uncle had served in the unit that liberated Auschwitz.

In fact, campaign spokesman Bill Burton says, his great uncle was a member of the 89th Infantry Division that liberated the Ohrduf camp, part of Buchenwald and, according to the Holocaust Museum, the first concentration camp liberated by U.S. troops.

The soldier in question, Burton said, is Obama's grandmother's brother, who's still alive.

UPDATE: "Senator Obama�s family is proud of the service of his grandfather and uncles in World War II � especially the fact that his great uncle was a part of liberating one of the concentration camps at Buchenwald. Yesterday he mistakenly referred to Auschwitz instead of Buchenwald in telling of his personal experience of a soldier in his family who served heroically," Burton says.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0508/Obamas_World_War_II_history.html

PTSD, not the names of the concentration camps.

edit to add - a comment on Daily Kos added that this came up during the Q & A, not the speech: "It wasn't during his speech, it was a part of the Q & A - a veteran asked BO about his own family's experience with war.. thats when Barack answered about his grandfather first, stating that he - grandpa rarely spoke of his experiences..except to give BO his dog tags when Barack was a teen.. and then he furthered his answer in relating the above story about his uncle... It was a relatively long and drawn out question by the vet.. so I doubt it was planted.