Decorated soldier struggles with life

By Kimberly Hefling
Associated Press

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. — In combat, Army Spc. Dwayne Turner was a hero. Back home from Iraq, his life has been in shambles.

Brig. Gen. Frank Helmick congratulated Pvt. Dwayne Turner, right, after awarding him the Silver Star, the third highest award for actions in combat at Fort Campbell, Ky., Feb. 5. Since being wounded in Iraq, Turner has tried to cope with his experience as a combat medic and struggled to return to normal life. Associated Press

The smile he beamed at the medal ceremony masked months of problems he says has battled since returning home with battle wounds: a suicide attempt along with flashbacks and nightmares so bad he resorted to binge drinking to fall asleep.

"I kind of felt like I was blowing in the wind pretty much," said Turner, 23, of Indianapolis, who was an Army medic.

He wound up going AWOL for two days and smoking marijuana while drunk. That, he says, resulted in a general discharge from the Army rather than an honorable discharge, and left him ineligible for college financing. The Army also demoted him from specialist to private before his discharge.

The Army said it will not comment on the circumstances surrounding Turner's discharge because it is an administrative issue.

Turner, who still walks with a limp, said his problems relate to his struggles back home after the war.

"They don't understand," he said. "They think you're pretty much supposed to be normal when you come back from war, and I don't understand that."

Last year, Turner deployed to Iraq with the 101st's 3rd Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment. He was in his element as he treated wounded American soldiers, prisoners of war and Iraqi civilians.

"I loved my job," Turner said. "I loved my guys."

Then, on April 13, he was with comrades in a crowded area south of Baghdad when assailants shot at the soldiers and threw grenades.

Turner treated 16 of the soldiers during the attack even though he had shrapnel wounds in both legs and was shot at least twice in the limbs.

"He is a bona fide hero. He saved two lives without question," said Brig. Gen. Frank Helmick, who awarded Turner the Silver Star, the third highest award given for actions in combat.

A beaming Turner was modest: "I don't consider myself a hero at all. I just figured everybody was going to come home and nobody was going to die on my watch."

After returning to Fort Campbell, Turner says, he felt guilty for leaving his comrades behind. He also had flashbacks and anxiety. Eating at McDonald's, he would worry the restaurant would be robbed.

Turner said Army psychiatrists diagnosed him with acute stress disorder and post traumatic stress. He was set to get out of the Army on a medical discharge, he said.

Last summer, things got worse for Turner. His grandfather died and he was having problems with his ex-wife, the mother of his 2-year-old son.

Everything was too much to handle, and he stopped showing up for duty and was declared AWOL from the Army. "I wasn't planning on coming back," Turner said.

Drinking one night, he contemplated suicide and cut his wrist, but changed his mind and treated the wound himself. And drunk at a party, he said, he smoked a cigar that he said he didn't know was stuffed with marijuana.

Still, a friend persuaded him to go back to the Army.

"I can't run away from my problems, I need to face it," Turner thought.

Given an Army drug test — standard after a soldier goes AWOL — he tested positive for marijuana.

Though he wishes things had turned out differently, he said that given his state of mind, he's not sure he wouldn't go AWOL again in the same circumstances.

"It was all really just too much for one person to handle and come out OK all the time." he said. "Everybody has their breaking point."

Turner's mother, Barbara Turner, of Indianapolis, said the Army should have given her son an honorable discharge. "He's a nice guy, and I think he's getting a raw deal," she said.

Sgt. Kelly Tyler, a public affairs officer at Fort Campbell, said the Army weighs all aspects of a soldier's conduct when determining the type of discharge. "The Army is responsible for a great number of things, but some of this has to come down to individual responsibility," Tyler said.

Turner said he has stopped heavy drinking, gotten a part-time job as a medical aide and he is hoping to begin taking classes at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tenn.

He said he would like to be a psychiatrist, even though he has a long road ahead of him. After all he has been through, he said he now would like to help people with their own mental problems.

"I kind of understand," he said.