"You do not recover from PTSD
by undergoing treatment for drug addiction"

by Alan Lubke, February 13, 2008

Former Army Ranger, Army Captain, Sargent Binkley is pending a criminal trial in San Mateo County Superior Court for using a gun during an armed robbery. What bothers me is not Binkley's possible prison term under California's mandatory sentencing laws; it is rather, that Sargent Binkley is still not getting treatment for the root cause of his predilection for drugs. That root cause is Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD). His PTSD stems from the torment of the smell of decomposing bodies in a mass grave in Bosnia, and the face of a teenage boy he gunned down during a raid on a marijuana plantation in Honduras.

You do not recover from PTSD by undergoing treatment for drug addiction. Binkley is on bail from San Mateo County Jail on the condition that he undergoes treatment for drug addition at Jericho House in Daly City. Where should he be? He should be at the Palo Alto VA Medical Center's annex in Menlo Park being treated for PTSD! It is time for the Department of Veteran's Affairs to step up to the plate and immediately and actively support Sargent Binkley in his case.

Sargent Binkley has pleaded "Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity" in San Mateo County Superior Court. On December 19, 2007, Judge Clifford V. Cretan appointed Drs. Kline and Dr. Seeman "to examine defendant pursuant to PC 1026". They were to determine whether Sargent Binkley was "legally sane or legally insane at the time of the commission of the alleged offense; that is, whether the defendant was incapable of knowing or understanding the nature and quality of his act or of distinguishing right from wrong at the time of the commission of the offense."

When submitted to the court in January 2008, the reports from Drs. Kline and Dr. Seeman were found to be "in conflict". As a result, Judge Cretan on February 8, 2008 "appointed Dr. Jeff Gould to examine defendant pursuant to P.C. 1027". His report is scheduled to be received in court in Redwood City at 8:45 a.m. on March 19, 2008.

It is time for the Department of Veteran's Affairs to step up to the plate and actively takes a stand in the criminal case of Sargent Binkley and commit to their motto, "to care for him who shall have borne the battle".

Alan Lubke
San Bruno, CA
13 February 2008

While in a U.S. Army Drug and Alcohol residential treatment program in 1992, my roommate was a retired Special Forces Army Master Sergeant. Although being treated for alcohol abuse like myself, he also suffered from PTSD. He would wake up from horrible dreams accentuated by the smell of the dead Viet Cong that he had helped place in cargo containers for burial at sea. PTSD treatment by the military was in its infancy at that time. He was never able to find peace and continued to binge drink after completing the treatment program. He died a few years later. - -Alan Lubke