Wizard 6: A Combat Psychiatrist In Vietnam (texas A & M University Military History Series, 104)

Wizard 6 describes my tour of duty as a psychiatrist assigned to the 1st Infantry Division in Vietnam during 1969 and 1970. It was another existence. We referred to home as "the world." . . . As with any combat environment, there was the irony of military psychiatrists helping men adjust to a crazy place. In 1969 six psychiatrists were assigned to combat divisions in Vietnam, charged with treating soldiers showing psychiatric symptoms in order to get them back into battle. Doug Bey, whose radio call name in the 1st Infantry Division was Wizard 6, was one of those psychiatrists. Drawing on graphic detail gleaned from a journal Bey transcribed when he got back stateside, this psychiatric specialist describes the daily life of a military support unit, the boredom and mind-numbing routine, but also the social issues and psychiatric crises he confronted. In Vietnam he treated people with a range of coping mechanisms, including counter phobic reactions, self-medication with drugs and alcohol, and "gross stress reaction," as well as the gamut of psychiatric illnesses. Each month Bey and his staff saw some four hundred men, including characters like the Vietnam equivalent of Klinger from M*A*S*H, a killer dentist, soldiers addicted to killing, and others who did not want to go home. He witnessed firsthand black pride, Vietnamese prejudice, racial conflict, and the Viet Cong's fear of mental illness. Bey's book provides a rare and powerful account that views the immediacy of combat from the perspective of thirty-five years in psychiatric practice and extensive study of combat and post-combat psychology. Wizard 6 offers new perspectives on the Vietnam war and itsaftermath and draws cautious comparisons with the issues today's troops may face both in the field and when they return home. Author Biography: DOUGLAS BEY completed his medical degree at the University of Illinois in Chicago, as well as a rotating internship and a three-year residency at the Menninger School of Psychiatry, before serving in the U.S. Army. He is now semi-retired but continues to practice psychiatry on a limited scale in Normal, Illinois. Bey has written a number of professional articles about men in battle. Prelude to Vietnam Stepping through the looking glass Black and white in Vietnam Diagnosing and treating patients in the division The Viet Cong's perception of mental illness Drugs and alcohol Civilian health care High-risk individuals and REMFS High-stress periods The first R&R Escaping from stress Time grinding on Madness and medals Getting away to Saigon and the second R&R Coping with Vietnam Short and leaving Vietnam And I say to myself. In 1969 six Psychiatrists Were Assigned to combat divisions in the field in Vietnam. Their assignment was to see soldiers when psychiatric symptoms occurred in order to treat the men and return as many as possible to battle. Douglas Bey, whose radio call name was Wizard 6, was one of them, serving with the 1st Infantry Division in Vietnam during 1969 and 1970 Describes the author's tour of duty as a psychiatrist assigned to the 1st Infantry Division in Vietnam during 1969 and 1970. This book offers perspectives on the Vietnam war and its aftermath and draws cautious comparisons with the issues troops may face both in the field and when they return home.