Master Sergeant William "Spanky" Gibson is a retired United States Marine, who served for 22 years in multiple theaters. On May 16th, 2006, while on a foot patrol in Iraq, then-Gunnery Sergeant Gibson was shot through the left knee during a fire fight. His wounds required his left leg to be amputated just above the knee. He re-deployed to Iraq in January 2008, making GySgt Gibson the first above the knee amputee to return to a ground combat area of operation.
MSgt Gibson spoke with The Cipher Brief about the key issues facing young veterans and Wounded Warriors during and after their transition out of military service.
The Cipher Brief: What does Veterans Day mean to you?
Master Sergeant William “Spanky” Gibson: It’s a time for reflection, even more so now that I’ve retired. Even during my 22 years in the Marine Corps, Veterans Day was a time for reflection. It’s a day to think about my friends who have served but more so, my friends who have passed. I look back and I think about my time in combat and my time in the USMC during peace time. So it’s my time to reflect—unfortunately it’s a pretty large reflection pool.
TCB: What do you believe are the key issues facing veterans?
WG: It’s two-fold. First, there are the veterans that are released early because of a medical condition, whether it’s due to combat, disease, or injury – the “wounded, ill, and injured.” I’ve mentored many of these veterans. They’re 19, 20, 21 years of age, and when they’re released from the hospital or a wounded warrior element, they have no plan about what to do when they get out. They’ve had, to some extent, the proverbial rug pulled out from under their feet. They return to this “unplanned for” life – they go back home, go to college, go to a job, with the fear of the unknown.
The military has the Transition Assistance Program (TAP) and the Wounded Warrior programs; it’s done everything possible to prepare these kids. But the programs never, truly, psychologically prepare a service member to become a veteran. Young kids who come out of the military –national guard, reserves, active duty, it doesn’t matter – they’re kind of flying by the seat of their pants.
So that’s one part of it. The other part is an individual’s transition into the Department of Veterans Affairs, whether it be for compensation or for medical treatment.
Medical treatment normally kicks in pretty quickly, but if a new veteran is used to a hospital like Walter Reed, or San Diego, or any of the big poly-trauma centers, and the vet goes to a local VA, just like I did, it’s just not the same. They’re used to walking into Prosthetics and saying “Hey, I need a new running leg because I’m going to run the Army 10-miler,” or “I need a new swim leg because I want to try ampu-surf, I want to do this, this, and this.” For instance, as an above the knee amputee, I’ve got 18 or 19 legs. When I entered the VA process, I had been an active tri-athlete, so I needed a lot of extra components. But walk into a local VA and veterans say “we’re not prepared for this.” I lived that.
So, depending on a new veteran’s level of need for VA healthcare, they could very possibly walk themselves into a depressing situation, especially young kids. It was a little different for me at 40 when I retired. But 21-27-year-old kids are going to walk into the VA, and right out the gate, they’re going to feel uncomfortable, they’re not going to get what they need immediately, and they’re going to say, “screw it, I want nothing to do with this.” When they say “screw it,” then they arrive at a critical fork in the road. Do they have family support or some kind of emotional support? Or are they going to go homeless? And if they go homeless, or they don’t have the support, are they at risk for suicide?
That is probably the biggest issue facing veterans. Are they going to go down a road of despair, because they’re not getting the treatment they’re accustomed to? Did anyone tell them it was going to be like that?
Because if we told them that, it is going to be frustrating, then they can prepare for it. If we didn’t tell them, and they’re not prepared for it, or they didn’t listen and believe us, are they going to go down a very negative road? That’s where the suicide prevention part comes in.
TCB: What are common misconceptions about Wounded Warriors that need to be addressed?
WG: I’ve dealt with this world quite a bit being an amputee myself. For wounded warriors, the biggest misconception is probably about mental health – Traumatic Brain Injury and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. The questions are always: If they have TBI, are they going to have the capacity to learn? Should I trust them? Or if it’s PTSD, are they going to have anger issues, and should I worry about the welfare of my employees?
I started graduate school after I retired, and when I started wearing shorts to class, people saw that I was an amputee, and it changed their whole perspective on who I was as a person. They asked, “Oh my god, you’re an amputee? Was that in the military? Wow, you’re really…” And they don’t want to say it, but I know what they meant: “We thought you would be stupid.” The assumption that a combat wound or injury could be some kind of mentally debilitating factor – when it’s very much a physical problem – baffles me.
TCB: What more needs to be done to support Wounded Warriors?
WG: Better private-public partnerships, such as the VA being more open to not-for profits and private entities. You see it in hospital settings, like in Tampa, or Chicago, or even here in Oklahoma City – the OU medical center is combined with the VA medical center. Those private-public partnerships need to be better, especially for not-for-profit organizations.
I think the private sector wants to pick up the slack, and I think that needs to happen. I don’t think it should always be the federal government. I think we should all help one another. And if we’re going to do that, the private sector needs to step up and say, “We’ll help you out.”
TCB: You spoke earlier about your transition into civilian life and how your experience with the Marine Corps helped you succeed in the business world. Could you tell us more about that?
WG: For people who have spent 20 or 30 years in the military, we have a lot more of the leadership principles and traits to fall back on to be successful. We’ve been conditioned as senior officers, senior staff NCOs, to accomplish all tasks at hand or to do our best to accomplish those tasks. For me, it’s important not to judge everything I do in the civilian world against my true career. From 17 until 40, I was in the Marine Corps, so my whole adult life until the point of transition was made up of military experiences. Part of my transition into the civilian world is understanding what parts of those qualities I can use, and what I can’t.
Integrity, responsibility, and certain key leadership principles, as long as I adjust them for the civilian world, can make me stand out compared to somebody who has never been in the military. Having said that, you can’t be the guy who just says, “Well this is the job, I don’t care what you think, do it.” You have to respect that not everybody around you is military. I have to remember that I can’t bark my orders the way I might have done to one of my Marines. I have to just try to lead, try to explain, try to assist, try to mentor, try to use those leadership qualities that I’ve been taught.
The younger kids getting out of the military, especially the kids who’ve never been injured, they say, “I can’t work for that guy, I would never follow him into combat.” Or, “I can’t work for this person because they’re just an idiot.” They start to get this very pessimistic attitude, and I have to try to tell them “Hey, listen, you cannot compare the military to the civilian world.” They are two totally different sets of rules.
TCB: Do you have any other advice that you would give to veterans making the transition from active duty to civilian life?
WG: For Marines, they understand it: Prior Proper Planning Prevents Piss-Poor Performance. For every other service out there, national guard, reserve, all of the other branches: Prior Proper Planning Prevents Piss-Poor Performance. If you can plan for the transition, do so. Don’t count on a pipe dream and assume that things are going to be handed to you. Work hard to achieve and accomplish things that will give you the respect in the workplace that most people want. It’s common sense.
To me, in everything I do, I realize that people are not going to look at me as Spanky Gibson. They’re going to look at me as a United States Marine. And if they look at me as a United States Marine and I perform inadequately, I get fired, or I do a terrible job, they’re going to look at every Marine and assume that same thing.
I try to tell people that our actions are what everyone around us and all the people behind us might have to overcome, or, try to achieve.
MSgt Gibson currently works as the Marketing Manager for MC Petroleum, an ExxonMobil distributor. In his spare time he mentors his fellow Wounded Warriors, as well as raises awareness and monies for not-for-profit organizations. His goal is to assist Wounded Warriors in overcoming the invisible wounds of war and live a more productive life.
