Marine Cole Van Dorn buried at Arlington, fueling PTSD fight
ABC7 I-Team Investigation
WASHINGTON (WLS) -- On Capitol Hill there is movement in both houses of congress on new legislation that would help thousands of service members suffering from PTSD - although it is too late for Marine veteran Cole Van Dorn, who was buried Thursday at Arlington National Cemetery.
In the shadow of the Pentagon, at this resting place for American heroes, a rifle salute to the latest serviceman who died while fighting a hidden enemy in a private war: PTSD.
VIDEO: Suburban Marine laid to rest after PTSD struggle
Van Dorn, just 29-years-old, grew up in west suburban Bloomingdale and graduated from Glenbard East. His 6-year-old son Cameron honored his dad by wearing a tiny Marine Corps uniform, accepting the flag off his father's casket.
Van Dorn was an elite sniper in the Marine Corps, assigned to several tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. He retired in January after a decade of service.
He died last month in his southern California home; in Chicago, his father tells the I-Team that the military had put Van Dorn on a cocktail of more than a dozen anti-psychotic and anti-depression medications. Relying on drugs to treat PTSD has some in congress demanding change.
"When you're losing 22 a day, it's not working," Rep. Bost said. "The amount of drugs that they're giving - it's not working. And we know that from the case that we're talking about right now."
Downstate Illinois congressman Mike Bost is backing a House bill aimed at helping veterans and active military with PTSD. And Senate Armed Services Committee member Joe Donnelly from Indiana says a bill moving through the Senate would help PTSD victims at a critical moment.
"In the handoff from active duty over to veterans, there are drugs that people are on while on active duty to help handle some of the mental challenges they may have - when they flip over to the VA side, those may not be permissible prescriptions, so they have to go on completely different medicines, which change everything for them," Sen. Donnelly said.
Whether Van Dorn died from the effects of his PTSD cocktail treatment isn't clear - his cause of death has not been determined.
His burial at Arlington Cemetery Thursday was one of two dozen daily burials - many of them young veterans who had PTSD.
