MILITARY: PTSD pushed Marine to abandon family and service

Emotional hearing ends with time served for troubled Marine who went AWOL in 2006

By MARK WALKER - Staff Writer | Friday, December 19, 2008 7:27 PM PST ∞

CAMP PENDLETON ---- Marine Lance Cpl. Lance Hering says the war in Iraq pushed him to abandon his family and his service.

On Friday, two years after he faked his own death and deserted his unit, the 23-year-old Hering stood in a Camp Pendleton courtroom.

By the end of an emotional court-martial, Hering emerged with a sentence of time served behind bars since his Nov. 16 arrest, a fine of $1,166 and an administrative discharge from the service.

Marine Corps officials refused to characterize the nature of the discharge, saying it was subject to privacy regulations.

Hering's case was different from others in that authorities acknowledged he had not been treated for post-traumatic stress syndrome before leaving Iraq in the summer of 2006, even though he sought counseling, according to unchallenged testimony heard Friday.

"Iraq shook my faith in humanity and its purpose," Hering told the officer who presided over the court-martial, Capt. William Ryan. "I don't regret the decision to leave. I do regret the way I chose to leave."

Shortly after his return to Camp Pendleton, Hering went on leave to visit his family in Boulder, Colo. But after only a few days at home, he quietly slipped away, boarded a bus for Iowa and had no contact with his family or the Marine Corps for two years.

Then, in May, he sent a Mother's Day e-mail to his mom saying that he loved her.

A few weeks later, he agreed to meet his father, Lloyd, at the annual Burning Man art and self-expression festival in the Nevada desert. The two talked for hours and forged a plan for Lance to rejoin his family and face the consequences of going AWOL.

The first step toward that reunification came last month when he and his father prepared to fly from Port Angeles, Wash., to Colorado and a meeting with a nonmilitary psychiatrist. That was to be followed by a return to Camp Pendleton. That plan went awry when authorities got a tip that father and son were in Port Angeles and arrested them, starting the military legal process.

Hering told the court that he spent his two years wandering the country, time in which he said he searched for meaning and purpose. The early days were the hardest.

"Those were very dark days for me," he said. "I had confusing images, violent thoughts."

When he was arrested, Hering had no identification and had grown his hair to the middle of his back.

On Friday, he appeared the image of any young Marine, standing straight, speaking calmly, his hair cut high and tight.

Hering said that he was afraid to return to Camp Pendleton.

"I don't know what would have happened from the state that I was in," he said. "I didn't tell anyone I was leaving or contact them for two years ---- I just left. The journey that has brought me here today has been long and difficult, but it has been healing."

In May, the Pentagon said at least 30 percent of all combat troops returning from Iraq or Afghanistan suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. It put the number of troops with the diagnosis at nearly 40,000.

His father said he believes part of the reason for his son's trauma was that he was raised for a time in Saudi Arabia and grew up with a deep appreciation for the people of the Middle East and their culture.

"For me, it wasn't surprising that my son was tormented by Iraq," Lloyd Hering said. "The violence of war in the Middle East came as a shock to him."

The elder Hering, who served in the Army infantry in Vietnam and later was diagnosed as also suffering post-traumatic stress disorder, said his meeting with his son was cathartic for both.

"We talked for hours about my mistakes and his," he told the court while wiping away tears. "He was running from where he had been."

Smiling at his son, who was wiping away his own tears, Lloyd Hering thanked him for "finally coming home."

Lloyd Hering also praised the way the Marine Corps has handled his son's case.

"The Marine Corps has a reputation for magnificent inflexibility, but that is not what I have seen," he said. "He has been treated like a wayward and wounded warrior."

During his address to the court, Lance Hering turned to his parents and said his decision to return to his family and society after months was in part fueled by a woman he grew close to while on the lam.

"She's not here, but she taught me to love again," he said.

Hering has more legal trouble to deal with. Late Friday, he was turned over to Bolder authorities to face a false reporting charge stemming from when a friend reported him missing during his 2006 visit home in an attempt to fake his death so he would not be a wanted man.

Hering also faces a probation violation for an attempted burglary conviction prior to his enlistment. The probationary period was set to expire two weeks after he went AWOL.

His attorney, James Culp, said Hering's sentence acknowledged the flaws in the methodology used in 2006 to identify troops with post-traumatic stress.

"But the Marine Corps is now getting it," Culp said.

After the court session, Lance Hering talked on the telephone with someone else he hasn't seen or spoken with in more than two years ---- his brother.

Contact staff writer Mark Walker at (760) 740-3529 or mlwalker@nctimes.com.