This 3-volume series, Vietnam Trilogy, has been selected as one of four finalists for the MWSA (Military Writers Society of America) 2009 non-fiction book award. Raymond Monsour Scurfield, DSW, LCSW, ACSW, is an Associate Professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Southern Mississippi—Gulf Coast. A Vietnam veteran, he worked for the Dept. of Veterans Affairs for 25 years and directed PTSD mental health programs in Los Angeles, Washington DC, the Pacific Northwest, Hawaii and American Samoa.

Dr. Scurfield is recognized nationally and internationally for his expertise in war-related PTSD through his leadership of innovative treatment programs, 50+ publications, 250+ presentations, educational videos, national media appearances and research. 

Scurfield has published works on racism and PTSD, and the continuing psychological impact of the events of 9/11. He co-led an award-winning study-abroad course taking three combat veterans and 16 history students to Vietnam, in 2000, in a program that uniquely combined history and mental health curriculum and experiential learning.

Scurfield has received several outstanding university teacher awards and he was awarded the Department of Veterans Affairs Olin E. Teague award for extraordinary contributions benefiting war-injured veterans. He received the 2006 Mississippi Social Worker of the Year Award by the Mississippi Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers in recognition of his post-Hurricane Katrina social work activities and post-traumatic stress interventions on the MS Gulf Coast since August 29, 2005. His achievements in the study and treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder have become landmarks in psychiatry.

War Trauma draws on the experience of prior wars for valuable insights to help people who are now in the military or in the healing professions, and their families and communities, to deal with today s realities of combat and its aftermath which...

War Trauma draws on the experience of prior wars for valuable insights to help people who are now in the military or in the healing professions, and their families and communities, to deal with today s realities of combat and its aftermath which so often entails PTSD (post-traumatic stresss syndrome), depression, and the risk of suicide. This is Part 3 in A Vietnam Trilogy, which studies the psychiatric impact of war on soldiers and veterans, and their families. The effects go on for decades after the violence occurred, and we are still just learning to understand the depth and variety of problems it can cause. Further, Scurfield documents his proven innovative therapies for treating PTSD. This third volume looks at what military and mental health professionals and the Veterans Administration (VA) should have learned from the Vietnam War in order to better protect American servicemen and servicewomen in later conflicts and to help them recover afterwards. The Persian Gulf War, for instance, had an immense impact on veterans of all wars. The author was a national faculty member for joint VA-DOD training programs to enhance mental health response readiness for receiving anticipated medical and psychiatric casualties from the Persian Gulf War. What he found was a resurgence of selective amnesia and denial about the true impact of war. Scurfield notes, "Chillingly, what happened in Vietnam in 1968-69 regarding psychiatric casualties has enormous parallels to what is happening today regarding US psychiatric casualties from the Iraq War." A VIETNAM TRILOGY The series consists of three volumes: The first volume (Algora 2004), A Vietnam Trilogy. Veterans and Post-Traumatic Stress, 1968, 1989 and 2000, described the healing processes of hundreds of veterans from Vietnam and earlier wars up until 1990, when the author co-led a group of veterans on a therapeutic trip back to Vietnam to "face their demons." Healing Journeys ,the second volume, continues from 1990 to 2000 (including a discussion of the impact of the first Gulf War on veterans of earlier wars) and a second return trip to Vietnam in 2000, as part of a university Study Abroad program, to help veterans in their healing process. The current (third) volume uses the experience of veterans of earlier wars to help US servicemembers and their families and communities, and those in the healing professions, to address the mental health problems caused by combat and its aftermath.