Our editors connected with Mr. Drapeau in this exclusive interview about post military injuries and his own journey with surviving the “voices and ghosts” of war. “No matter what trade you are in, anyone suffering from PTSD… please get help! Go and get some help because you, you owe it to your family and your friend and yourself. Go and get some help because you are living with a cancer- the kind that chews you up slowly. Uh, in my case, I had two strokes because of PTSD. I have a brain illness cause of PTSD and because it keeps your blood pressure up the roof. So please get help- your family deserves better knowing you can be a better you than the one you are under PTSD.”
I found a saying in one of my tours: "VIOLENCE IS THE LAST RESORT FOR THE IMBECILE" written on a rock in No Man's land between Syria and Israel during the Yom Kippur War. The message here was stating that it's much easier to do war than do peace. Unfortunately, in today's world, it's more crazy [than ever with] violence and war than ever before – as if any excuse is good to start a war with your neighbor. It seems like there's no boundaries about how far stupidity can go. We tend to react the wrong way instead of thinking twice before acting.
As of now, the only organization I'm still attending is the United Nations Peacekeeper. Groups like this really want to help and they're trying to help their members as much as they can, but the problem is that they're running after ghosts. Sometimes, PTSD lock you in the room and you don't want to get out. And oftentimes, it's about many incidents- not just one. You can have many recurrences as soon as the wall drops, then you'll be getting more stuff coming at you.
With so many, trauma is often suppressed. You might get them laughing but inside, they may be crying. Or if their wall is up, they have no problem- then the next thing you know, you'll see one of your friends just go and kill himself and you won't know why. You’ll wonder why he always (seemed) so happy- then you realize that maybe inside he was not so happy after all. Some people will have PTSD and thanks God for them to cope with it and live with it. Some other people have to deal with it differently. You can never understand what they are going through because we're all different and we all have to deal with different things.
One of the main things we try to do is “build a wall”- as a way to disassociate yourself. Having seen enough death can do this- such that if you see anyone else die around you now, you wouldn’t care. The same goes if you hit a dog or a fly or any animal - my wall is built. Disassociation helps separate and survive from that initial pain again from witnessing friends dying in service.
Another example is a friend of mine was on the post in Cyprus and he would see a shepherd coming every day with his sheep. And he was a very nice guy. One morning, about half an hour later, they hear a big bang. The sheep and his dog came back alone. The poor guy stepped on a mine and was killed instantly. In wartime, they put mines all over the place and they don't remove them after the war. And the only way you can find out where the land mines are is by stepping on it.
I built a wall around seeing these things in order to deal with the job. You're in 18 and half and you're in Cyprus, driving in a mine field in No Man’s land with an armored vehicle. I was conditioned not to care- I wasn't scared. When you're young, nothing bothers you. You're superman. Later on they'll ask you if you would do it again-- and you WILL do it again. Because for me, as long as they didn't kill each other, that's what mattered. That for me was success.
When you deal with people from different countries at war, know that there's good people on both sides. Outside of the battlefield, they are all really nice people. One thing I keep doing is I speak to the children in classrooms. I say, “listen, you have choices here in Canada. You want to go to school, you go to school. And the only one stopping you for become something is yourself. You want to be a doctor? Be a doctor. Be the best you can. Like me. I joined the army and after that, I became a policeman. Then I became a firefighter because I wanted to try those. If I lived to 200, I probably would've tried to be a doctor.
RELATED ARTICLES:
1) Veterans Affairs Canada: Daniel Drapeau (Ottawa, Ontario): https://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/about-vac/who-we-are/department-officials/minister/commendation/bio/1177
2) CPAC-TV: LIVE: Veteran Daniel Drapeau speaks with reporters in Ottawa https://twitter.com/CPAC_TV/status/996042770123964417
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Our publishers give special thanks to Mr. Daniel Drapeau for this exclusive interview and his contributions included in this story. Additional thanks go to Prof. Joseph J. Toy for his generous time and effort that helped bring Mr. Drapeau and his achievements to our attention – both without whose kind generosity this feature would not have been made possible.
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