Being a veteran, especially one who has served in a combat area, casts a shadow on the psyche that never truly goes away. Audie Murphy is a classic example. A poor farm boy from Texas, he joined the army after Pearl Harbor at age 17 and saw combat in Sicily and southern Italy. Amazingly, by the age 19, he had become the highest decorated soldier in American history, receiving every military combat award for valor available from the United States Army. He received the Medal of Honor for an unbelievably heroic act of single-handedly holding off hundreds of German soldiers until reinforcements arrived while wounded on a burning tank!

After Audie Murphy was featured on the cover of the Life magazine in 1945, at the time the most popular weekly magazine in America, he was sought out by Hollywood shortly after he was discharged. He would go on to star in some 44 films over the 1950s and 60s, becoming quite wealthy as a rancher and businessman. He even became a songwriter for such singers as Dean Martin, Eddy Arnold, and Charley Pride.

A man who came from having to quit school in fifth grade to work full-time to support his family after his father abandoned them would seemingly be on the top of the world after his military exploits and subsequent success in life. But it was not so. Audie Murphy suffered from what we now know as PTSD. He had a hair-trigger temper, would wake up screaming at night, slept with a pistol under his pillow, and got addicted to prescription drugs. Not surprisingly, he also had two failed marriages and mishandled his investments that resulted in bankruptcy.

Everyone who knew him well said he was friendly, generous, and even when going through financial difficulties, never accepted offers for cigarette or alcohol television commercials because he thought it would set a bad example for children. Yet despite his strong character, the ghosts of combat haunted him. In May 1970, Audie Murphy was charged with assault to commit murder after a bar fight in Burbank, California, but an apparently sympathetic jury acquitted him of all the charges. A year later he would die in a private airplane crash.

If an Audie Murphy with all his success would suffer with PTSD, and become a threat to society as a result, this is obviously a problem that needs to be addressed. This was especially true as the 1990s and onward saw the United States become involved in continual combat roles in the Middle East. It took till 2008 when the first Veterans Treatment Court was established in Buffalo, New York. It proved so successful that since that time there are now more than 100 such treatment courts in over 25 states.

The way this works is that when a veteran has been charged with an offense, he or she is given the offer to have their case heard in Veterans Treatment Court. They could plead out and serve their reduced sentence, whatever it would be, or they could take the opportunity to avoid incarceration or other punishment if they successfully completed all the requirements of treatment and rehabilitation.

Unlike Audie Murphy, this is not a free ride or a slap on the wrist. The Veteran Treatment Court provides significant structure for veterans, requiring frequent court visits, participation in treatment programs, and regular testing for substance abuse where applicable. Veterans who do not comply with treatment generally end up back in the correctional system.

Judge Nancy Butts introduced the Lycoming County Veterans Court in 2019 to address the growing number of veterans involved in the criminal justice system in this county. It has been slow in development, largely because of the COVID shutdowns, but there have been three successful cases so far, and eight more are in the process. It is a promising start.

There is another component of the program that is very critical and necessary, and that is the Veteran Court Mentor program. A trained veteran mentor is paired with a veteran defendant to provide support as he or she navigates through the criminal justice system and treatment. This is so important, that it deserves a separate feature all its own. Watch for it next week — Vets Helping Vets.