Exclusive: How does the military handle trauma? NJ sergeant's struggles raise questions

Mike Kelly
NorthJersey.com
June 21, 2024
Article Link

Just about every doctor who examined him agrees that Kyle Matthews, an Air Force sergeant, developed psychological problems after returning last year to his base in New Jersey from a Middle East deployment.

But how serious were those problems? And how could Matthews best be helped? And why is the Air Force trying to push Matthews out of the military and into civilian life without lining up proper psychiatric help?

Those questions are now at the center of a vexing and suddenly bitter public debate within the tight-knit military community over what to do with Matthews, 28 and a nine-year Air Force veteran who is married and the father of six young children. His story also offers an unsettling window into Pentagon’s broader struggle to cope with a troublesome rise in soldiers facing mental health challenges.

Matthews decided to speak publicly to NorthJersey.com about his ordeal in the hope of drawing attention to his own case and perhaps sparking a broader discussion of what many view as an overly secretive military system that is still finding its way in treating mental health challenges.

In a series of interviews, Matthews detailed how he has battled a disturbing set of mental problems since returning from a six month stay with his unit, the 305 Aerial Port Squadron, at a remote base in the Kuwaiti desert that coordinates U.S. military air traffic throughout the Middle East. On the home front, the squadron is based at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, a sprawling complex in the South Jersey flatlands that includes a variety of military units.

Matthews also allowed NorthJersey.com to review his medical records.

For the Pentagon, the larger effort to deal with the psychological trauma within the ranks since the 9/11 attacks spans nearly a quarter-century and two wars, not to mention millions of dollars in funding. 

More than 7,000 U.S. service members died in those conflicts, mostly in Iraq and Afghanistan.  But another 30,000 took their own lives, often after returning home and finding they were unable to cope with the trauma of war and a lonely deployment in a hostile land where death often came at the hands of a booby-trap roadside bomb. Thousands more were diagnosed with post traumatic stress syndrome, depression and other psychological problems.

Such grim statistics make the story of Kyle Matthews especially acute — and troublesome.

Mental health challenges

After returning last spring to his wife, Kylie, 31, and six children, which range in age from 3 to 9 years old and live in military housing at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in Wrightstown, New Jersey, Matthews attempted suicide three times, medical records show.

He was also admitted four times to three private psychiatric hospitals outside the base for varying lengths of time and then treated at those facilities as an outpatient. A variety of civilian and Air Force doctors have prescribed nine medications, including lithium for bipolar disorder.

But in all of his medical assessments, there is a striking void: No doctor has fully concluded why Matthews is now suffering from so much psychological trauma. He did not see combat in his deployment. And none of his medical records indicate that he endured some sort of trauma. Like so much of psychology, the reasons for Matthews's current condition remains a bit of a mystery.

A spokeswoman at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst declined to comment on Matthews, citing federal laws that bar employers from discussing their workers’ medical records. The spokeswoman instead emailed a link to a web site that offers psychological services for soldiers.

An Air Force spokeswoman at the Pentagon also declined comment.

“In general, we don’t give out details,” said Air Force Capt. Sarah Johnson.

Such secrecy over medical trauma is not uncommon — in both civilian and military circles. But in Matthews’s case, his advocates fear that the lack of transparency by the Air Force may hamper his future care.

Whether mysterious or not, Matthews’s medical records reveal a worrisome downward spiral of a sergeant who once saw the Air Force as a fulfilling springboard and career from his working class roots in Oil City, Pennsylvania.

Now the Air Force wants to boot him out of the military entirely — on an administrative discharge. On Tuesday, Matthews received a formal two-page Air Force order, telling him that he would have to move out of his home on Juniper Street in the Fort Dix section of Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst by June 27. 

A prominent veterans advocacy group is trying to block Matthews’s discharge and has reached out to the Pentagon and a variety of high ranking military officials. So far, none have intervened.  

"It’s so egregious,” said Jeremy Sorenson, a former Air Force fighter pilot and now the director of Guard and Reserve Affairs for the non-profit Uniformed Services Justice & Advocacy Group. 

Sorenson, who rose to the rank of major in the Air Force, served in Iraq and Afghanistan and now pilots commercial jetliners. He called the Air Force’s treatment of Matthews “unkind,” “immoral” and “illegal.”

Sorenson helped Matthews connect with Brenda Gohr, a Texas-based attorney and former Air Force officer and military lawyer, who now offers legal advice to service members as part of a group called The Veterans Advocate. 

After reviewing Matthews’s medical records, Gohr questioned why the Air Force has been so quick to force him out of the military when there is such a stark contrast in how civilian and Air Force doctors view his psychological problems.

“There seems to be a significant disconnect,” said Gohr, “between what going on off-base and what’s going on on-base” with Matthews’s doctors.

“None of it makes sense,” Gohr added. “Air Force doctors are writing prescriptions for bipolar disorder but saying he does not have bipolar disorder. It’s like 'Catch-22,' Orwell and 'Alice in Wonderland.'”

For much of the past year, Matthews, who still works a regular shift on the base in New Jersey with his squadron, also spent nearly 200 days in some sort of treatment program, not only at the medical clinic on his base but in private psychiatric facilities.

But doctors within those private hospitals differ greatly from Air Force medical experts in assessing Matthews’s condition — and how he should be treated.

From those differences springs a dilemma of what to do with him. And, hence, the debate over his condition. 

The doctors who treated him in private psychiatric hospitals say Matthews suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder, depression and several other serious mental health problems. Air Force doctors, however, diagnosed him with a variety of less-serious adjustment and personality disorders. In fact, Air Force doctors say several times in his medical records that they wonder if Matthews may be faking his psychological trauma.

With PTSD and bipolar disorder, Matthews would be eligible to be placed on a full military disability status — meaning that he would receive a substantial pension and extensive medical benefits. Under the assessment by Air Force doctors, he would not qualify for the same benefits.

Whatever the truth about Matthews’s mental health, one thing seems clear: His symptoms offer a portrait of a young man in trouble.

A neurology report last month by Cooper University Medical Center in Camden, described a “bipolar episode” in which Matthews banged his head against a wall. And while the Cooper report went on to say that Matthews “was diagnosed by three outside physicians to have bipolar disorder,” it also pointed out that Air Force doctors and mental health experts at “the base did not believe that he has bipolar disorder and that he was over-exaggerating his symptoms.”

Another report in March by the Hampton Behavioral Health Center in Westhampton, noted that an Air Force psychologist at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst “believes” that Matthews is “seeking a bipolar diagnosis because there is some monetary incentive in having a bipolar diagnosis after discharge” but “no monetary value with the diagnosis he currently has.” 

Matthews denies that he is exaggerating or faking any of his problems.

“I’m not making this up,” he said.  “We’re in limbo land.”

'They see him as a number'

Kyle’s wife, Kylie, 31, offers yet another painful window into military mental health and the difficulties in coping as a spouse.

In a 3,700-word written statement to NorthJersey.com, Kylie described her husband as a dramatically changed man, with a personality she did not recognize after he returned from Kuwait in April 2023. 

“Though he ‘physically’ returned,” Kylie wrote, “my husband, the man that I fell in love with, never came home.”

In an interview, Kylie accused the Air Force of trying to kick her husband out the door instead of helping him heal.

“They do not want to admit what’s wrong with my husband,” she said. “Instead of doing the right thing, they see him as a drain. They don’t see him as a person or a father. They see him as a number.”

She added that she suspects that the Air Force is also angry that her husband has told his story publicly — not just to NorthJersey.com but to a veterans advocacy group while also reaching out to Rep. Andy Kim, the Democrat whose district includes Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst.

 “The fact that we have talked to so many people and fought against them, they don’t like that,” she said.

Kim’s spokesman said the congressman, who is considered a front-running to win a U.S. Senate seat in the November election, has contacted the Air Force, asking for answers, but was rebuffed. Two letters reviewed by NorthJersey.com — one from an Air Force general and another from the colonel who commands Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst — indicated that Matthews was being treated for his psychological problems but did not acknowledge the stark differences in diagnoses by civilian and military doctors — or raise questions about those differences.

“Our commitment to service members and their families doesn’t end with their time in the service,” Kim said in a statement early Thursday on Matthews. “It’s unacceptable when that commitment is not fully met. Sgt. Matthews and his family deserve our full support during their transition to civilian life.”

For Kyle and Kylie Matthews, the lure of the military life — and its benefits — has soured.

Kyle said he has been essentially ostracized by his colleagues in his squadron and neighbors near their base home.

“Nobody wants to be friends with a crazy person,” Kyle said.

For her part, Kylie, now devotes large chunks of her day in assembling medical records and trying to advocate for her husband. All this while also caring for six children. 

“I refuse to let Kyle die,” she said.

Mike Kelly is an award-winning columnist for NorthJersey.com, part of the USA TODAY Network, as well as the author of three critically acclaimed nonfiction books and a podcast and documentary film producer. To get unlimited access to his insightful thoughts on how we live life in the Northeast, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.