displacement: 56,300 tons
length: 1,046 feet
beam: 130 feet 4 inches; extreme width: 249½ feet
draft: 37 feet
speed: 34 knots
complement: 3,826 crew
armament: 8 5-inch guns
class: Forrestal

The seventh Ranger (CVA-61), a Forrestal-class aircraft carrier, was laid down 2 August 1954 by Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Co., Newport News, Va.; launched 29 September 1956; sponsored by Mrs. Arthur Radford, wife of Admiral Radford, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and commissioned at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard 10 August 1957, Capt. Charles T. Booth II, in command.

Ranger joined the Atlantic Fleet 3 October 1957. Just prior to sailing 4 October for Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for shakedown, she received the men and planes of Attack Squadron 85. She conducted air operations, individual ship exercises, and final acceptance trials along the eastern seaboard and in the Caribbean Sea until 20 June 1958. She then departed Norfolk, Va., with 200 Naval Reserve officer candidates for a two-month cruise that took the carrier around Cape Horn. She arrived at her new homeport, Alameda, Calif., on 20 August and joined the Pacific Fleet.

Arriving at Alameda from the Far East 14 June 1963, she underwent overhaul in the San Francisco Naval Shipyard 7 August 1963 through 10 February 1964. Refresher training out of Alameda commenced 25 March, interrupted by an operational cruise to Hawaii from 19 June to 10 July.

Ranger again sailed for the Far East 6 August 1964. This deployment came on the heels of the unprovoked assault against USS Maddox (DD-731) on the night of 2 August and, two nights later, against both Maddox and USS Turner Joy (DD-951), by North Vietnamese motor torpedo boats. In retaliation for this aggression on the high seas by North Vietnam, President Lyndon B. Johnson, on 5 August, directed the Navy to strike bases used by the North Vietnamese naval craft. As Ranger steamed from the western seaboard, some 60 attack sorties rose from the decks of USS Ticonderoga (CVA-14) and USS Constellation (CVA-64).

Ranger made only an eight-hour stop in Pearl Harbor 10 August 1964, then hurried on to Subic Bay, and then to Yokosuka, Japan. In the latter port on 17 October 1964, she became flagship of Rear Adm. Miller who commanded Fast Carrier Task Force 77. In the following months, she helped the Seventh Fleet continue its role of steady watchfulness to keep open the sealanes for the Allies and stop Communist infiltration by sea.

On 7 February 1965, in retaliation for a damaging Viet Cong attack on installations around Pleiku, a fighter bomber strike, launched from Ranger, USS Coral Sea (CV 43), and USS Hancock (CV 19), blasted the military barracks and staging areas near Dong Hoi in the southern sector of North Vietnam

Gen. William Westmoreland, commanding the Military Advisory Command in Vietnam, visited Ranger on 9 March 1965 to confer with Rear Adm. Miller. Ranger continued air strikes on enemy inland targets until 13 April when a fuel line broke, ignited and engulfed her No. 1 main machinery room in flames. The fire was extinguished in little over an hour. There was one fatality. Ranger put into Subic Bay 15 April and sailed on the 20th for Alameda, arriving home on 6 May. She entered the San Francisco Naval Shipyard 13 May 1965 and remained there under overhaul until 30 September.

Her efficiency honed to a fine edge, Ranger departed Alameda 4 November 1967 for WestPac. Arriving Yokosuka 21 November, she relieved USS Constellation and sailed for the Philippines on the 24th. After arriving at Subic Bay on 29 November, she made final preparations for combat operations in the Tonkin Gulf. Commander, Carrier Division 3, embarked on 30 November as Commander, TG 77.7; and Ranger departed Subic Bay on 1 December for Yankee Station.

Arriving on station 3 December 1967, Ranger commenced another period of sustained combat operations against North Vietnam. During the next 5 months, her planes hit a wide variety of targets, including ferries, bridges, airfields and military installations. Truck parks, rail facilities, antiaircraft guns and SAM sites were also treated to doses of Air Wing 2's firepower. Bob Hope's "Christmas Show" came to Ranger in Tonkin Gulf on 21 December. Another welcome break in the intense pace of operations came with a call at Yokosuka during the first week of April 1968. Returning to Yankee Station on 11 April 1968, Ranger again struck objectives in North Vietnam.

After five months of intensive operations, Ranger called at Hong Kong 5 May 1968 and then steamed for home

She returned to Alameda 7 June 1971 and remained in port for the rest of 1971 and the first five months of 1972 undergoing regular overhaul.

The Linebacker II operations ended on 29 December when the North Vietnamese returned to the peace table.

 These operations involved the resumed bombing of North Vietnam above the 20th parallel and was an intensified version of Linebacker I. The reseeding of the mine fields was resumed and concentrated strikes were carried out against surface-to-air missile and antiaircraft artillery sites, enemy army barracks, petroleum storage areas, Haiphong naval and shipyard areas, and railroad and truck stations. Navy tactical air attack sorties under Linebacker II were centered in the coastal areas around Hanoi and Haiphong. There were 505 Navy sorties in this area during Linebacker II. Between 18 and 22 December the Navy conducted 119 Linebacker II strikes in North Vietnam. Bad weather was the main limiting factor on the number of tactical air strikes flown during Linebacker II.

On 27 January 1973, the Vietnam cease-fire, announced four days earlier, came into effect and Oriskany, America, Enterprise and Ranger, on Yankee Station, cancelled all combat sorties into North and South Vietnam.

 During the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam conflict (starting in 1961 and ending on 2 January 1973) the Navy lost 726 fixed-wing aircraft and 13 helicopters to hostile action. The Marine Corps lost 193 fixed-wing aircraft and 270 helicopters to enemy action during the same period. Operation Homecoming, the repatriation of U.S. POWs between 27 January and 1 April 1973, began and North Vietnam and the Viet Cong released 591 POWs. Of the 591 POWs released during Operation Homecoming, 145 were Navy personnel, all but one of whom were Naval Aviation personnel.

Ranger returned to Alameda in August 1973 and remained in that area through 7 May 1974 when she deployed again to the western Pacific, returning to homeport on 18 October. On 28 May 1976, while on deployment, helicopters crews from HS-4 aboard Ranger, detachments from HC-3 on USS Camden (AOE 2), USS Mars (AFS 1) and USS White Plains (AFS 4), and helicopters from NAS Cubi Point, Republic of the Philippines, assisted in Philippine disaster relief efforts in the flood ravaged areas of central Luzon. Over 1,900 people were evacuated; more than 370,000 pounds of relief supplies and 9,340 gallons of fuel were provided by Navy and Air Force helicopters.

President George H.W. Bush addressed the nation on 16 January 1991 at 9 p.m. EST and announced that the libration of Kuwait from Iraq, Operation Desert Storm, had begun. The Navy launched 228 sorties from Ranger and USS Midway (CV 41) in the Persian Gulf, from USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) enroute to the Gulf, and from USS John F. Kennedy (CV 67), USS Saratoga (CV 60), and USS America (CV 66) in the Red Sea. In addition, the Navy launched more than 100 Tomahawk missiles from nine ships in the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea, and the Persian Gulf.

Ranger earned 13 battle stars for service in Vietnam.

displacement: 82,538 tons (74,877 metric tons) full load
length: 1,073 feet (327 meters)
beam: 130 feet (39.62 meters); extreme width: 282 feet (85.95 meters)
draft: 39 feet (11.89 meters)
speed: In excess of 30 knots (34.5+ miles per hour)
complement:4,000 crew
aircraft: 85
armament: Three NATO Sea Sparrow launchers; four 20mm Phalanx CIWS mounts
class: Kitty Hawk

The second Constellation (CVA 64) was built by New York Naval Shipyard, Brooklyn, N.Y.; christened 8 October 1960 by Mrs. C. A. Herter, wife of the Secretary of State; and commissioned 27 October 1961, Capt. T. J. Walker, in command. She was named for one of the six frigates bought by the Continental Congress in the late 1790s. The first of those frigates, ships which were to make American naval history, was named for the ring of 13 stars that formed a "new Constellation" on the flag of the new United States.

It was in the last stages of her building at the New York Naval Shipyard, on 19 December 1960, a fire broke out on Constellation's hanagar deck. Fifty civilian workers died in the blaze.

Constellation deployed to the western Pacific from her homeport of San Diego on 5 May 1964. The first three months of that deployment brought normal operations, training and port calls. However, on 2 August, while operating in international waters in the Gulf of Tonkin, USS Maddox (DD-731) reported being attacked by units of the North Vietnamese Navy. Within minutes of her receipt of the message, USS Ticonderoga (CVA 14) dispatched four, rocket-armed F8E Crusaders to the destroyer's assistance. Upon arrival, the Crusaders launched Zuni rockets and strafed the North Vietnamese craft with their 20-millimeter cannons. The Ticonderoga airmen teamed up with Maddox gunners to thwart the North Vietnamese attack, leaving one boat dead in the water and damaging the other two.

                   Constellation returned 1 February 1965. Her crew was awarded the Navy Unit Commendation and the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal for actions in the Gulf of Tonkin. Constellation again deployed to the western Pacific from her home of San Diego on 12 May 1966 with Carrier Air Wing 15. On 1 July, three North Vietnam torpedo boats came out to attack USS Coontz (DLG 9) and USS Rogers (DD 876) operating about 40 miles off shore on search and rescue missions. Aircraft from Constellation and USS Hancock (CVA 19) made short work of the attackers, sinking all three with bombs, rockets, and 20mm cannon fire. After the attack, Coontz pulled 19 survivors from the water. Constellation returned from the WESTPAC deployment on 3 December 1966.

Constellation made her third deployment to the western Pacific and Vietnam in 1967. She departed San Diego with with a new air wing, CVW 14, on 29 April 1967 and returned home on 4 December.

Constellation began her fourth deployment to the western Pacific and Vietnam on 29 May 1968. It was during the initial stages of this deployment that she was visited in June by President Lyndon B. Johnson. On 1 November, as directed by President Johnson, all bombing of North Vietnam was halted at 2100 Saigon time. The last Navy mission over the restricted area was flown earlier in the day from Constellation by Cmdr. Kenneth E. Enney in an A-7 Corsair II. Constellation remained on deployment, returning home to San Diego on 31 January 1969. Following maintenance and training periods, the carrier once again stood out from southern California, this time on her fifth deployment to the western Pacific and Vietnam on 11 August 1969.

On 28 March 1970, Lt. Jerome E. Beaulier and Lt. (j.g.) Stephen J. Barkley in an F-4 Phantom II of VF-142 off Constellation shot down a MiG-21 while escorting an unarmed Navy reconnaissance plane on a mission near Thanh Hoa, North Vietnam. This was the first North Vietnamese MiG kill since the 1 November 1968 bombing halt. Constellation returned home on 8 May 1970.

During Operation Iraqi Freedom, the Constellation Carrier Strike Group flew more than 1,500 sorties (missions) and expended more than 1 million pounds of ordnance, including 408 Tomahawk cruise missiles. USS Bunker Hill was one of the first warships to conduct Tomahawk strikes against leadership targets in Iraq. Its embarked LAMPS (Light Airborne Multi-Purpose System) helicopter detachment, Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron Light 45 "the Wolfpack," supported the rescue of United Nations workers being forcibly removed from oil platforms in the Northern Arabian Gulf and provided medical evacuations from Umm Qasr.

On 13 July Constellation held an "Alumni Day" event, inviting shipbuilders, Sailors and Marines who served aboard the ship during its history to self-guided tours through some of the ship's spaces. After 41 years of commissioned service, and completing 21 deployments, Constellation was decommissioned in San Diego at the Naval Air Station North Island on 7 August 2003.

The decommissioned carrier was towed, beginning 12 September 2003 from the Naval Air Station North Island to the Inactive Ships Maintenance Facility at Bremerton, Wash., by a contracted ocean-going tug operated by Foss Maritime of Seattle, Wash.

displacement: 27,100 tons
length: 888 feet
beam: 93 feet; extreme width at flight deck: 147½ feet
draft: 28 feet 7 inches
speed: 33 knots
complement: 3,448 crew
armament: 12 5-inch guns, 44 40mm.guns, 59 20mm guns
aircraft: 80+
class: Essex

The fourth Hancock (CV-19) was laid down as Ticonderoga 26 January 1943 by the Bethlehem Steel Co., Quincy, Mass.; renamed Hancock 1 May 1943, launched 24 January 1944; sponsored by Mrs. DeWitt C. Ramsey, wife of Rear Adm. Ramsey, Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics; and commissioned 15 April 1944, Captain Fred C. Dickey in command.

After fitting out in the Boston Navy Yard and shake-down training off Trinidad and Venezuela, Hancock returned to Boston for alterations 9 July. She departed Boston 31 July 1944 en route to Pearl Harbor via the Panama Canal and San Diego, and from there sailed 24 September to join Adm. W. F. Halsey's Third Fleet at Ulithi 5 October. She was assigned to Rear Adm. Bogan's Carrier Task Group 38.2.

Hancock commenced conversion and modernization to an attack aircraft carrier in Puget Sound 15 December 1951 and was reclassified CVA-19, 1 October 1952. She re-commissioned 15 February 1954, Captain W. S. Butts in command. She was the first carrier of the United States Fleet with steam catapults capable of launching high performance jets.

Hancock joined in combined defense exercises along the coast of South Korea, then deployed off the coast of South Vietnam after the coup which resulted in the death of President Diem. She entered the Hunter's Point Naval Shipyard 16 January 1964 for modernization that included installation of a new ordnance system, hull repairs, and aluminum decking for her flight deck. She celebrated her 20th birthday 2 June 1964 while visiting San Diego. The carrier made a training cruise to Hawaii, then departed Alameda 21 October 1964 for another tour of duty with the 7th Fleet in the Far East.

Hancock reached Japan 19 November and soon was on patrol at Yankee Station in the Gulf of Tonkin. She remained active in Vietnamese waters fighting to thwart Communist aggression until heading for home early in the spring of 1965.

November found the carrier steaming back to the war zone. She was on patrol off Vietnam 16 December 1965; and, but for brief respites at Hong Kong, the Philippines, or Japan, Hancock remained on station launching her planes for strikes at enemy positions ashore until returning to Alameda, Calif., 1 August 1966. Her outstanding record during this combat tour won her the Navy Unit Commendation.

Hancock was decommissioned 30 January 1976. She was stricken from the Navy list the following day, and sold for scrap by the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service (DRMS) 1 September 1976.

Hancock was awarded the Navy Unit Commendation and received four battle stars for service in World War II.

displacement: 27,100 tons
length: 888 feet
beam: 93 feet; extreme width at flight deck: 147½ feet
draft: 28 feet 7 inches
speed: 33 knots
complement: 3,448 crew
armament: 12 five-inch guns, 72 40mm guns
aircraft: 80+
class: Essex

                     The fourth Ticonderoga (CV 14) was laid down as Hancock on 1 February 1943 at Newport News, Va., by the Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co.; renamed Ticonderoga on 1 May 1943, launched on 7 February 1944, sponsored by Miss Stephanie Sarah Pell, and commissioned at the Norfolk Navy Yard on 8 May 1944, Capt. Dixie Kiefer in command.

Ticonderoga remained at Norfolk for almost two months outfitting and embarking Air Group 89. On 26 June 1944, the carrier shaped a course for the British West Indies. She conducted air operations and drills en route and reached Port of Spain, Trinidad, on the 30th. For the next 15 days, Ticonderoga trained intensively to weld her air group and crew into an efficient wartime team. She departed the West Indies on 16 July and headed back to Norfolk where she arrived on the 22d. Eight days later, the carrier headed for Panama. She transited the canal on 4 September and steamed up the coast to San Diego the following day. On the 13th, the carrier moored at San Diego where she loaded provisions, fuel, aviation gas, and an additional 77 planes, as well as the Marine Corps aviation and defense units that went with them. On the 19th she sailed for Hawaii where she arrived five days later.

Ticonderoga remained at Pearl Harbor for almost a month. She and USS Carina (AK-74) conducted experiments in the underway transfer of aviation bombs from cargo ship to aircraft carrier. Following those tests, she conducted air operations — day and night landing and antiaircraft defense drills — until 18 October 1944 when she exited Pearl Harbor and headed for the western Pacific. After a brief stop at Eniwetok, Ticonderoga arrived at Ulithi Atoll in the Western Carolines on the 29th. There she embarked Rear Admiral A. W. Radford, Commander, Carrier Division 6, and joined Task Force (TF) 38 as a unit of Rear Admiral Frederick C. Sherman's Task Group (TG) 38.3.

                      While her air group busily pounded the Japanese, Ticonderoga's ship's company also made their presence felt. Just after noon, a torpedo launched by an enemy plane broached in USS Langley's (CVL 27) wake to announce the approach of an air raid . Ticonderoga's gunners raced to their battle stations as the raiders made both conventional and suicide attacks on the task group. Her sister ship USS Essex (CV 9) erupted in flames when one of the kamikazes crashed into her. When a second suicide plane tried to finish off the stricken carrier, Ticonderoga's gunners joined those firing from other ships in cutting his approach abruptly short. That afternoon, while damage control parties dressed Essex's wounds, Ticonderoga extended her hospitality to that damaged carrier's homeless airmen as well as to USS Intrepid (CV 11) pilots in similar straits. The following day, TF 38 retired to the east.

On the morning of 16 August 1945, Ticonderoga launched another strike against Tokyo. During or just after that attack, word reached TF 38 to the effect that Japan had capitulated.

The shock of peace, though not so abrupt as that of war almost four years previously, took some getting used to. Ticonderoga and her sister ships remained on a full war footing. She continued patrols over Japanese territory and sent reconnaissance flights in search of camps containing Allied prisoners of war so that air-dropped supplies could be rushed to them. On 6 September, four days after the formal surrender ceremony on board USS Missouri (BB-63), Ticonderoga entered Tokyo Bay.

On 1 September 1973, the aircraft carrier was decommissioned after a board of inspection and survey found her to be unfit for further naval service. Her name was struck from the Navy list on 16 November 1973. Ther ship was disposed of, sold by Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service (DRMS) for scrapping 1 September 1975.

Ticonderoga received five battle stars during World War II and three Navy Unit Commendations, one Meritorious Unit Commendation, and 12 battle stars during the Vietnam War.

It was built with 24 tons of scrap steel from the World Trade Center .

It is the fifth in a new class of warship - designed for missions that include special operations against terrorists. It will carry a crew of 360 sailors and 700 combat-ready Marines to be delivered ashore by helicopters and assault craft.

Steel from the World Trade Center was melted down in a foundry in Amite , LA to cast the ship's bow section. When it was poured into the molds on Sept 9, 2003, those big rough steelworkers treated it with total reverence, recalled Navy Capt. Kevin Wensing, who was there. It was a spiritual moment for everybody there.

Junior Chavers, foundry operations manager, said that when the trade center steel first arrived, he touched it with his hand and the hair on my neck stood up. 'It had a big meaning to it for all of us,' he said. 'They knocked us down. They can't keep us down. We're going to be back.'

The ship's motto?

 'Never Forget'

By Michael McKenna

Michael McKenna is a Vietnam veteran who suffers from posttraumatic stress disorder. He reports his descent into a profound addiction to heroin, and his use of cannabis as a singular medicine for becoming human.

My name is Michael McKenna. I'm 46 years old, and I've been using marihuana on and off since 1970. I've gone without it for long periods, but I use it today and probably will for the rest of my life. I have no choice. I went to Vietnam right after my 18th birthday. When I had been there for two weeks, our company lost the first men that I knew. Back at base camp, I sat in the dark by myself wondering what the hell had happened. I asked myself where these souls went, and was there a heaven for men who died the way they did. As I stared into the darkness I heard a voice behind me say "Man, you shouldn't be out here by yourself thinking about this shit or you'll go nuts." I couldn't look him in the face and didn't even look up for fear that he would see the tears in my eyes. He told me I needed to get drunk to forget it and go on, or I would die there. I told him I didn't drink, and he said he would be right back. When he returned he had a big joint and asked if I had tried pot before. I told him that I had, a couple of times. He said this shit was about 100 times stronger than anything in the States and I should only smoke a little. Then he left.

That night alone in the dark, I smoked the whole thing, and I've never regretted it. He had given me my mental survival tool. It did not make me forget, just allowed me to digest the pain and fear peacefully and respectfully with dignity. I'm sure you've heard before that over there we had Jesus freaks, straights, potheads, and diesel freaks (drinkers). While the diesel freaks made up the majority, pot smoking became more and more open. The straights became potheads by the drove.

My job over there meant I had to deal not only with our dead but theirs also, along with murders, suicides and heroin overdoses. I did not allow my crew to get high on the job, but when we hit camp we all smoked. There was not one drinker in my crew, because we had to move on a moment's notice, and you could not trust the drunks to be ready or sometimes even able. The potheads came through like champs, always ready, always able. When I returned home, I was hit by the same crap that most other vets got: unemployable, hate, prejudice, called all of the names I'm sure you've heard. All you had was family and close friends, and that didn't last, because in your head they knew that you were the murdering, rapist scum that they had been reading about and seeing on the news. So I threw away all the people who knew me and loved me and turned to vets and then threw them away too, just as some had thrown me away because they knew the scum that I was. Soon no one I was seeing even knew I had even been in the Army, and I wasn't talking. My way to cope was heavy drugs and booze.

About this time my father (a combat vet from WWII) told me in a loving way that something was wrong with me, that I wasn't adjusting. He saw death in my eyes, and knew that I was killing myself. He and my Mom begged me to get help before it was too late, or my rage and anger would kill me or someone else. So with my Dad almost holding my hand, we went to the VA hospital in St. Louis. They told me there that I didn't really have a nervous problem, and in time I would adjust like everyone else who had served in combat. They gave me Valium and told me to come back in 90 days. When I went back and told them the Valium wasn't working, they said there was nothing else they could do, and I had to live with it. I began to hit the drugs even harder, running all over the country from my demons. Eventually I got strung out on heroin, a $500 a day habit. When I found myself thinking about robbing places because I could no longer support my habit, I decided to quit so I wouldn't hurt my family any more. All the people I knew who took methadone in the morning were still doing heroin at night, so I decided to quit cold turkey.

I called my father to come and get me. All I told him was that I need his help. He never asked why, and I never told him until later, but he knew anyway. He put me in a camper on his property not too far from their home, and then the hell began. He watched me from time to time, puking, screaming, not able to sleep or even stay in the trailer. I would build campfires to sleep by, if I slept at all. If the fire went out, he would keep it going when I didn't even know he was there.

On the third day, while I was rolling on the ground screaming in pain and puke, a yellow convertible pulled in and a barefoot guy with waist-long hair and no shirt got out. He said my father had sent him to help me. Seeing my confusion, he said, "Just call me Dr. Jim, and you're going to sleep tonight." He had a bag of pot and a gallon of whiskey. I told him to take his shit and get out. Pot wasn't going to do shit, and the whiskey would probably kill me. But he said getting drunk would help me sleep, and the pot would make the withdrawal less violent and help with the puking. I stayed drunk and high for a week.

When I finally went to my Dad's to take a shower, he came over and hugged me, as nasty and disgusting as I was, with tears in his eyes. He told me that I had been through enough, that he would have gone through the withdrawal for me if he could have, but that I still had a long way to go. He said that he was never so proud of me as he was when he realized that I wasn't going to turn back to heroin instead of continuing the withdrawal. He suggested that I quit the booze, but maybe the pot wasn't a bad thing. Well, I drifted away from the other drugs, but continued to drink and smoke pot. I was unknowingly starting to refine my own treatment. Pot was no longer just a party high for me but a survival tool. I used it to cope with everyday things that others seemed to do on their own, going out, seeing friends, working.

I was just another bombed-out crazy vet, useless, suicidal, and violent. I've had a lot of women in my life who liked me but could not stand the mood swings, the striking out and fighting, and the depression. After a while they all would learn the same thing: that when I had pot, I was nicer and more romantic and didn't get into fights. So they made sure I had pot even if they had to buy it for me.

I'm in my third marriage, and my wife has mixed feelings about pot because it's illegal. I've bought my first home, and she's afraid we will lose it if I get busted. So she's scared, but she sees that pot helps me. Since 1990 I've been in therapy for PTSD. I've been in the Stress Recovery Unit at Bay Pines VA hospital in Florida four times. My doctors there have tried me on different medications for depression and anxiety such as Valium, Prozac, trazodone, Cetrizine, and Serzone. All of my doctors know I self-medicate with pot, because I never hid this from any of them. Most of them don't really discuss it with me, but some have, and have even told me that the only problem is that they can't control the dose. They ask me not to smoke while I'm adjusting to their drugs, but I always go back to the pot because it is what works for me. I still use trazodone to help me get to sleep and short-circuit the nightmares, but pot is my daytime drug. I've had a lot of pain in my lower back for many years. During one of my stays at the VA, they told me I had a spondylopathy there that they could not operate on, and that I would probably end up in wheelchair. While pot does not stop the pain, it sure makes it a lot easier to live with at bad moments. My pain pills don't stop the pain and are addictive.

I think it is important for you to know that I'm not a "Cheech and Chong" type. I've been a deputy sheriff as well as a police chief and a private investigator, but the PTSD always made me crash and burn. I've lost everything several times, and for the last few years I have been rebuilding again. My doctors have told me to retire and try to maintain as normal a life as possible.

Yes, I'm still in a lot of pain mentally and physically, but I am still alive, and I know that I would not be if it weren't for the pot and my family. And as I said earlier, without the pot I would not have maintained my family. I'm sorry I've been going on longer than I thought I would, but I guess I had to defend my continued use. I hope I can help others who have guilty feelings because the stuff is illegal. We must make choices, and mine is to continue to smoke and tell others about the benefits that I got. Thank you for helping me vent.

Phillip Leveque, a former WWII combat infantryman, physician and toxicologist, discusses the merits of marijuana use for those who suffer from PTSD.

(MOLLALA, Ore.) - For those who do not know it, the humans and all animals so far tested produce two marijuana like substances, Anandamide and 2- Arachidonal glycerol (2AG), which produce exactly the same medical functions as marijuana.

Courtesy: deanza.eduSecondly marijuana/cannabis has been used in human medicine for about 4,000 years and have never killed anybody, which cannot be said for almost any other medicine.

Thirdly, between 1850 and 1900 cannabis medicine was the most prescribed and most used medicine for about 100 different diseases in the U.S.

Fourthly, in 1988 after hearing 15 days of testimony, pro and con, DEA Administrative Judge Francis L. Young made the following ruling, "Marijuana in its natural form is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man. Marijuana is far safer than many foods we commonly consume." Three DEA Administrators, all non-physicians, refused to comply and have deprived millions of desperately ill patients' effective relief.

Authors Note: Many newspapers and magazines are currently publishing articles about PTSD – what is it and what to do about it. Most reporters AND psychiatrists don't have a clue. One heavy artillery or mortar barrage would give them some insight.

In World War I, it was called "Shell Shock". As a frontline Combat Infantryman, pointman, scout and forward observer, I know what an artillery or mortar barrage is like – it scares the bejesus out of the soldier. In a long barrage, I can see the soldier going psychotic – frozen in space and time and not being able to speak or move, even if some battalion officer visiting the front would order him to do so. It happened a lot.

Courtesy: epluribusmedia.orgDuring World War II, if the soldier was lucky (I'm joking) he would be sent back to an aid station and be given a triple dose of a barbiturate sleeping pill. These were called "blue 88s". They would knock-out the soldier for at least 24 hours. Then he was often sent back to the front. On the off chance it was an officer, he would be sent way back to a rest area, often with as much booze as he wanted for as long as he wanted.

Army psychiatrists have had a field day with this. They first called it "homesickness" (what a crock). They also called it "war neurosis". That doesn't cover it. Everybody in a war zone has neurosis. It's how we cope. Battle is super stressful. A recent example is the serial killer at Virginia Tech who killed 32 students.

The whole student body and faculty had a neurosis. Many will suffer from PTSD.

For a soldier who may be almost constantly under fire with the knowledge that a whole bunch of enemy are trying to kill him and he is so tired and stressed out, does anyone, including psychiatrists, believe the soldier can carry on indefinitely?

Battle fatigue, terror fatigue, combat stress or PTSD seems to slightly cover the situation.

One of the symptoms is the belief that one cannot survive. This is NOT fear or paranoia. With horrible death and destruction all around, how can a soldier NOT know he won't survive? But still, he carries on.

Courtesy: d21c.comDuring World War II, in North Africa, the "nervous breakdown" ratio (another name for the same) was 15 to 20% of living casualties. Some other casualties went berserk and charged a machine gun or ran into a minefield. At the Battle of the Bulge, they shot themselves in the foot or let their feet freeze. No toes on a foot was better than a shot in the head.

The Vietnam soldier discovered an effective treatment for PTSD. They discovered it while in Vietnam. It was high-grade Marijuana and sometimes opium or a combination of both.

It isn't even known how high a percentage of frontline "grunts", as they were called, used the above, but it was a lot. They also had access to all the beer or booze they could get their hands on.

This was certainly no different than the "blue 88s" of WWII, and better in the long run.

The Vietnam Administration Clinics have tried every anti-psychotic and anti-depressant in the book as well as highly potent pain killers like Oxycontin and M.S. contin (morphine) with minimal success for PTSD. They did end up with thousands of drug addicts and alcoholics.

I had about 500 Vietnam vet patients. Many had PTSD which was not acceptable for an Oregon Medical Marijuana permit. Most did have some physical injury for which I could give them a permit.

Will vets please write in their experiences?

Email your story to: Tell Dr. Leveque

Note: This is modified from the article: "Battle Fatigue: What's wrong with these sissies?" from the author's book "General Patton's Dogface Soldier" by Phil Leveque.

By Tod Mikuriya, MD

Originally published in O'Shaughnessy's, Spring 2006

William Woodward, MD, of the American Medical Association, testifying before Congress in 1937 against the Prohibition of cannabis, paraphrased a French author (F. Pascal, 1934) to the effect that "Indian hemp has remarkable properties in revealing the subconscious." A Congressman asked, "Are there any substitutes for that latter psychological use?" Woodward replied, "I know of none. That use, by the way, was recognized by John Stuart Mill in his work on psychology, where he referred to the ability of Cannabis or Indian hemp to revive old memories —and psychoanalysis depends on revivivification of hidden memories."

For including that reference to Mill (1867) in the list I have been compiling of conditions amenable to treatment by cannabis, I was ridiculed by Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey in 1996. I stand by its inclusion, of course, and in the 10 years since California physicians have been approving cannabis use by patients, I have found myself appreciating and confirming Mill's insight with every report that cannabis has eased symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

PTSD As a Dissociative Disorder

PTSD—a chronic condition involving horrific memories that cannot be erased—is a dissociative identity disorder. The victims's psyche is fragmented in response to contradictory inputs that cannot be resolved.

Dissociative identity disorders are expressed in bizarre or inappropriate behaviors with intense sadness, fear, and anger. Repression or "forgetting" of the experiences may develop as a coping mechanism.

When traumatic or abusive experiences cannot be integrated into normal consciousness —as in the case of the Jekyl-Hyde behaviors of abusive parents or caregivers— creation of separate personalities or identities may occur.

For example, the woman who was molested by a family member may have both superfically-compliant and repressed-raging identities. The persona that's presented to the world can be swept away when a stimulus calls forth the overwhelming rage.

Such fragmenting of the individual personality causes tremendous stress. The psyche is incomplete because of repression and denial. The person tries to appear normal and logical but in fact is in turmoil, angry and depressed. The inability to deal directly with emotional issues results in ongoing splitting and compartmentalization of the personality —and in extreme cases, multiple personalities, hysterical fugue (a separate state of consciousness that the individual may not recall), blindness, paralysis, and other functional disruptions.
In 1994 the term "Multiple Personality Disorder" was replaced with the more widely applicable "Dissociative Identity Disorder." As an article (by Foote et al) and editorial (Spiegel) in the April 2006 American Journal of Psychiatry attest, it is only relatively recently that PTSD has been characterized as a dissociative disorder.

Easement by Cannabis

Approximately eight percent of the 9,000 Californians whose cannabis use I have monitored presented with PTSD (309.81) as a primary diagnosis. Many of them are Vietnam veterans whose chronic depression, insomnia, and accompanying irritability cannot be relieved by conventional psychotherapeutics and is worsened by alcohol. For many of these veterans, chronic pain from old physical injury compounds problems with narcotic dependence and side effects of opioids.

Survivors of childhood abuse and other traumatic experiences form a second group manifesting the same symptoms —loss of control and recurrent episodes of anxiety, depression, panic attacks and mood swings, chronic sleep deficit and nightmares.

The brief case reports in the box at the right of this page, unique though the subjects may be, typify two different forms that PTSD takes, both of which are eased by cannabis. The recurrent nightmares from the vet's traumatic episode took on a life of their own, causing nocturnal turmoil and dread. The repressed memories of the sexually abused and beaten woman were symptoms of a fragmented, dissociative response to the disorder.

Easement by cannabis helped both —the vet by toning down his reaction to the nightmares and restoration of his sleep, the woman by modulating her emotional reactivity and permitting her to process and integrate the experience and give up the fragmented, dissociative defense mechanisms, which in due course she no longer needed.
Repression and suppression are defense mechanisms that break down when the victim is fatigued and/or hurting and subjected to triggering stimuli. With cannabis, vegetative functions necessary for recovery, growth and repair are normalized.

Cannabis relieves pain, enables sleep, normalizes gastrointestinal function and restores peristalsis. Fortified by improved digestion and adequate rest, the patient can resist being overwhelmed by triggering stimuli. There is no other psychotherapeutic drug with these synergistic and complementary effects.

Practical Treatment Goals

In treating PTSD, psychotherapy should focus on improving how the patient deals with resurgent symptoms rather than revisitation of the events. Decreasing vulnerability to symptoms and restoring control to the individual take priority over insight as treatment goals. Revisiting the traumatic events without closure and support is not useful but prolongs and exacerbates pain and fear of loss of control. To repeat: cathartic revisiting of the traumatic experience(s) without support and closure is anti-therapeutic and can exacerbate symptoms.

Physical pain, fatigue, and sleep deficit are symptoms that can be ameliorated. Restorative exercise and diet are requisite components of treatment of PTSD and depression. Cannabis does not leave the patient too immobile to exercise, as do some analgesics, sedatives biodi-azapenes, etc. Regular aerobic exercise (where injury does not interfere) relieves tension and restores control through kinesthetic involvement. Exercise also internalizes the locus of control and diminishes drug-seeking to manage emotional response.

The importance of sound sleep

PTSD often involves irritability and inability to concentrate, which is aggravated by sleep deficit. Cannabis use enhances the quality of sleep through modulation of emotional reactivity. It eases the triggered flashbacks and accompanying emotional reactions, including nightmares.

The importance of restoring circadian rhythm of sleep cannot be overestimated in the management of PTSD. Avoidance of alcohol is important in large part because of the adverse effects on sleep. The short-lived relaxation and relief provided by alcohol are replaced by withdrawal symptoms at night, causing anxiety and the worsening of musculoskeletal pain.

Evening oral cannabis may be a useful substitute for alcohol. With proper dosage, the quality and length of sleep can be improved without morning dullness or hangover. For naïve patients, use of oral cannabis should be gradually titrated upward in a supportive setting; this is the key to avoiding unwanted mental side effects.
I recommend the protocol J. Russell Reynolds M.D., commended to Queen Victoria: "The dose should be given in minimum quantity, repeated in not less than four to six hours, and gradually increased by one drop every third or fourth day, until either relief is obtained, or the drug is proved, in such case to be useless. With these precautions I have never met with any toxic effects, and have rarely failed to find, after a comparatively short time, either the value or the uselessness of the drug."

The advantage of oral over inhaled cannabis for sleep is duration of effect; a disadvantage is the time of onset (45-60 minutes). When there is severe recurrent insomnia with frequent awakening it is possible to medicate with inhaled cannabis and return to sleep. An unfortunate result of cannabis prohibition is that researchers and plant breeders have not been able to develop strains in which sedative components of the plant predominate.

Modulation, Not Extinction

Although it is now widely accepted that cannabinoids help extinguish painful memories, my clinical experience suggests that "extinguish" is a misnomer.

Cannabis modulates emotional reactivity, enabling people to integrate painful memories —to look at them and begin to deal with them, instead of suppressing them until a stimulus calls them forth with overwhelming force.

The modulation of emotional response relieves the flooding of negative affect. The skeletal and smooth muscle relaxation decreases the release of corticosteroids and escalating "fight-or-flight" agitation. The modulation of mood prevents or significantly decreases the symptoms of anxiety attacks, mood swings, and insomnia.

While decreasing the intensity of affectual response, cannabis increases introspection as evidenced by the slowing of the EEG after initial stimulation. Unique anti-depressive effects are experienced immediately with an alteration in cognition. Obsessive and pressured thinking give way to introspective free associations (given relaxed circumstances). Emotional reactivity is calmed, worries become less pressing.

Used on a continuing basis, cannabis can hold depressive symptoms at bay. Agitated depression appears to respond to the anxiolytic component of the drug. Social withdrawal and emotional shutting down are reversed.

The short-term memory loss induced by cannabis that may be undesirable in other contexts is therapeutic in controlling obsessive ideation, amplified anxiety and fear of loss of control ignited by the triggering stimuli.

Easement Effects of Cannabis

In treating PTSD, cannabis provides control and amelioration of chronic stressors without adverse side effects. Mainstream medicine treats PTSD symptoms such as hyperalertness, insomnia, and nightmares with an array of SSRI and tricyclic anti-depressants, sedatives, analgesics, muscle relaxants, etc., all of which provide inadequate relief and have side effects that soon become problematic. Sedatives, both prescribed and over-the-counter, when used chronically, commonly cause hangovers, dullness, sedation, constipation, weight gain, and depression. See chart at right.
Cannabis is a unique psychotropic immunomodulator which can best be categorized as an "easement." Modulating the overwhelming flood of negative affect in PTSD is analogous to the release of specific tension, a process of "unclenching" or release. As when a physical spasm is relieved, there is a perception of "wholeness" or integration of the afflicted system with the self. For some, this perceptual perspective is changed in other ways such as distancing (separating the reaction from the stimulus, which can involve either lessening the reaction, as with modulation, or repressing/suppressing the memory; walling it off; forgetting).

The modulation of emotional response relieves the flooding of negative affect. The skeletal and smooth muscle relaxation decreases the sympathetic nervous reactivity and kindling component of agitation. Fight/flight responses and anger symptoms are significantly ameliorated. The fear of loss of control diminishes as episodes of agitation and feeling overwhelmed are lessened. Experiences of control then come to prevail. Thinking is freed from attachment to the past and permitted to fix on the present and future. Instead of being transfixed by nightmares, the sufferer is freed to realize dreams.

Based on both safety and efficacy, cannabis should be considered first in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder. As part of a restorative program with exercise, diet, and psychotherapy, it should be substituted for "mainstream" anti-depressants, sedatives, muscle relaxants, tricyclics, etc.

Case Report:

A 52-year-old retired executive secretary brought her 20-year-old daughter along to her follow-up interview two years after starting cannabis therapy. During her initial visit she had not disclosed fully the causality of her chronic depression with symptoms of PTSD (nightmares, chronic insomnia, dissociative episodes, rage).
She was experiencing loss of emotional control with crisis psychiatric interventions. Hypervigilance characterized her presentation; she described herself as being "all clenched up."

On follow-up she reported being able to recover and process repressed memories of sexual abuse from age five to 15 by her father (a preacher) and having been beaten by her enraged mother. She reported the diminution and cessation of dissociative reactions to the painful memories. This permitted her to process and resolve —or come to an accord with— these unthinkable memories. Her continuing psychotherapy focused on these issues. She no longer experienced episodes of loss of control. She was able to relax her hypervigilance. Her self-esteem was significantly improved and she seemed happy and optimistic

Her daughter confirmed that her mother was less irritable and more emotionally available since starting cannabis therapy. Both described improvement in their relationship.

Case Report:

A 55-year-old disabled male veteran had been a naval air crewman on patrol during the Vietnam war. A P2V turbo-prop engine failed to reverse properly on landing. A propeller broke loose, pierced the fuselage, and instantly killed his crew mate who was two feet away. He brought a large binder of documentation of the incident.
His PTSD was expressed primarily through a haunting, recurrent flashback nightmares that replayed the traumatic event. Attendant were the feelings of being emotionally overwhelmed. Sleep deficit was a salient aggravating factor for increasing vulnerability. Cannabis restored sleep and controlled nightmares. Depression and irritability had been eased.

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