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American Morning

Interview With Military Psychologist

Aired April 08, 2003 - 09:38   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: What will Jessica Lynch face on her road to psychological and physical recovery? Joining us from Washington, Colonel Bob Roland, of the National Defense University. He is a military psychologist who has worked to help former POWs recover from their trauma, in fact, came up with the protocol that the government uses in dealing with POWs. Good to have you with us, sir. Thanks so much for joining us this morning.
COLONEL BOB ROLAND, MILITARY PSYCHOLOGIST: Paula, thanks so much for having me on this very busy day. You folks are doing a terrific job of reporting.

ZAHN: Well, we're working hard, thank you, thank you very much. Let's talk about this protocol, I understand you break it down into three phases. What is the first intervention?

ROLAND: Let's talk about it in phases first of all, I won't take complete credit for this a group of very dedicated clinical psychologists in the military who belong to the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency under the Joint Forces Command that have developed this over a course of years. But right now, I think what we're talking about Private Lynch, I can't talk about her specifically, but more I'd like to talk about the general idea of repatriation, we do have several more soldiers who are out there, we're looking for them and we want to make sure that the families maintain hope.

So, in general, I would like to talk about what we do in that phase. Paula, Private Lynch is at Landstuhl Hospital, which is one phase into the process. She's been through phase one, which was the repatriation, recovery and the dramatic rescue we saw and that was quite something to behold. The special forces did a superb job, all of the people involved, just a terrific piece of work there. I want you to know, we have specially trained clinical psychologists, that are called SERE psychologists that are survival evasion resistance and escape psychologists, belonging to the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency who will work with any P.O.W. That is recovered from the very beginning. They meet them on the ramp when they are recovered, work with them and follow them through the process in this case to Landstuhl and we hope onto Walter Reed.

But first phase really involves tactical information. It's so very, very important. If the P.O.W. can provide information that might lead to the recovery of other lost, detained personnel, for them to be able to talk to us about that. Of course, if they are unable to because of injuries and certain things going on, we understand that, but there are people on the scene to try recover that information. Then when they are processed on, via medevac to a larger hospital, in this case Landstuhl where I'm sure the staff is doing a terrific job, you see different process that takes place. We have a strategic debriefers, for intel and background that go into these situations, along with clinical psychologists, specially trained to try to help the patient reintegrate and decompress from the circumstance. Often times, there are jumbled memories, there are confusing things going on with their mind, it's important to have them process that information and reintegrate in a way that helps them to recover. And I suspect that Jessica is going through that process right now. I don't know anything specific about what is going on but that terrific lead-in that you have me with the family is a wonderful sight, with that family and they've been apparently very terrific family to deal with.

ZAHN: They are going to be a terrific web of support for her when she comes home.

ROLAND: Absolutely.

ZAHN: This decompression stage, I know you have experienced this before with the guilt a soldier might feel about having survived and Jessica's case, she may or may not know by this stage that some of her friends are still being held and P.O.W.s and that some of her friends were killed in that this attack, how do psychologists deal with that?

ROLAND: Right, thanks for asking that I think that's a very important piece of this whole process, because we've learned through experience and previous wars that we have to deal with this and help people recompense from this experience. It would appear from your own news reports that Private Lynch is aware that some of her friends have been casualties in this and to the extent that she's unaware I'm not sure but at least reporting would indicate she is.

Her parents have been terrific about not pressing her about incidents and episodes, that's important to have the P.O.W. to work at their own pace and that's true, whatever interaction they have, with the press, whether it's with medical facilities down the road, when she comes to Walter Reed or any sort of ceremonies that she has, very important to let her work at her own pace and we've learned that through experience.

But dealing with the survival guilt is very important, because one of the main questions that anybody in combat situations asks themselves is did I comport myself in a way that will bring honor to me and I did use the training I had in the most productive way?

Has it -- an episode we can help them reintegrate into their life and frankly vast majority of our soldiers who are terrific individuals, have done just great stuff out there in combat, one of the important parts decompression, through all of the interviews they go through in this process, they talk to them about specific incidents, try to build time line back together, try to collect information, not only for tactical reasons and strategic reasons but to help put their life back together. ZAHN: We appreciate your dropping by to help us better understand of what Private First Class Jessica Lynch might be going through. Really appreciate your perspective this morning.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired April 8, 2003 - 09:38   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: What will Jessica Lynch face on her road to psychological and physical recovery? Joining us from Washington, Colonel Bob Roland, of the National Defense University. He is a military psychologist who has worked to help former POWs recover from their trauma, in fact, came up with the protocol that the government uses in dealing with POWs. Good to have you with us, sir. Thanks so much for joining us this morning.
COLONEL BOB ROLAND, MILITARY PSYCHOLOGIST: Paula, thanks so much for having me on this very busy day. You folks are doing a terrific job of reporting.

ZAHN: Well, we're working hard, thank you, thank you very much. Let's talk about this protocol, I understand you break it down into three phases. What is the first intervention?

ROLAND: Let's talk about it in phases first of all, I won't take complete credit for this a group of very dedicated clinical psychologists in the military who belong to the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency under the Joint Forces Command that have developed this over a course of years. But right now, I think what we're talking about Private Lynch, I can't talk about her specifically, but more I'd like to talk about the general idea of repatriation, we do have several more soldiers who are out there, we're looking for them and we want to make sure that the families maintain hope.

So, in general, I would like to talk about what we do in that phase. Paula, Private Lynch is at Landstuhl Hospital, which is one phase into the process. She's been through phase one, which was the repatriation, recovery and the dramatic rescue we saw and that was quite something to behold. The special forces did a superb job, all of the people involved, just a terrific piece of work there. I want you to know, we have specially trained clinical psychologists, that are called SERE psychologists that are survival evasion resistance and escape psychologists, belonging to the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency who will work with any P.O.W. That is recovered from the very beginning. They meet them on the ramp when they are recovered, work with them and follow them through the process in this case to Landstuhl and we hope onto Walter Reed.

But first phase really involves tactical information. It's so very, very important. If the P.O.W. can provide information that might lead to the recovery of other lost, detained personnel, for them to be able to talk to us about that. Of course, if they are unable to because of injuries and certain things going on, we understand that, but there are people on the scene to try recover that information. Then when they are processed on, via medevac to a larger hospital, in this case Landstuhl where I'm sure the staff is doing a terrific job, you see different process that takes place. We have a strategic debriefers, for intel and background that go into these situations, along with clinical psychologists, specially trained to try to help the patient reintegrate and decompress from the circumstance. Often times, there are jumbled memories, there are confusing things going on with their mind, it's important to have them process that information and reintegrate in a way that helps them to recover. And I suspect that Jessica is going through that process right now. I don't know anything specific about what is going on but that terrific lead-in that you have me with the family is a wonderful sight, with that family and they've been apparently very terrific family to deal with.

ZAHN: They are going to be a terrific web of support for her when she comes home.

ROLAND: Absolutely.

ZAHN: This decompression stage, I know you have experienced this before with the guilt a soldier might feel about having survived and Jessica's case, she may or may not know by this stage that some of her friends are still being held and P.O.W.s and that some of her friends were killed in that this attack, how do psychologists deal with that?

ROLAND: Right, thanks for asking that I think that's a very important piece of this whole process, because we've learned through experience and previous wars that we have to deal with this and help people recompense from this experience. It would appear from your own news reports that Private Lynch is aware that some of her friends have been casualties in this and to the extent that she's unaware I'm not sure but at least reporting would indicate she is.

Her parents have been terrific about not pressing her about incidents and episodes, that's important to have the P.O.W. to work at their own pace and that's true, whatever interaction they have, with the press, whether it's with medical facilities down the road, when she comes to Walter Reed or any sort of ceremonies that she has, very important to let her work at her own pace and we've learned that through experience.

But dealing with the survival guilt is very important, because one of the main questions that anybody in combat situations asks themselves is did I comport myself in a way that will bring honor to me and I did use the training I had in the most productive way?

Has it -- an episode we can help them reintegrate into their life and frankly vast majority of our soldiers who are terrific individuals, have done just great stuff out there in combat, one of the important parts decompression, through all of the interviews they go through in this process, they talk to them about specific incidents, try to build time line back together, try to collect information, not only for tactical reasons and strategic reasons but to help put their life back together. ZAHN: We appreciate your dropping by to help us better understand of what Private First Class Jessica Lynch might be going through. Really appreciate your perspective this morning.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com