ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
DURING THE CREATION AND COMPLETION of this volume, Norman M Camp, MD brought a unique blend of training and experience to the task of making sense of the many political, environmental, institutional, social, and psychological strands that interacted to ultimately create a morale and mental health crisis among US ground forces in Vietnam. Pivotal was his service as psychiatrist and commanding officer of the 98th Neuropsychiatric Medical
Specialty Detachment (KO) in Vietnam from October 1970 to October 1971— the period of greatest demoralization and dissent—for which he received the Bronze Star for Meritorious Achievement. Before going to Vietnam he completed his general medical internship at Letterman Army Hospital in San Francisco, California, and his general psychiatry residency at Walter Reed General Hospital in Washington, DC. After his return he completed child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship training at Letterman Army Hospital/University of California, San Francisco and psychoanalytic training with the Baltimore-Washington Institute for Psychoanalysis.
Additional familiarity with social sciences research came through his assignment as research investigator with the Department of Military Psychiatry, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) in Washington, DC, from 1980 to 1985, where he had the opportunity to conduct a survey of veteran Army psychiatrists who served in Vietnam regarding their professional activities in the theater. His WRAIR assignment also resulted in his publishing (with Stretch and Marshall) an annotated bibliography of the psychiatric and social sciences literature pertaining to the effects of the war on troops serving in Vietnam, and later a long overdue exploration of the potential confusion of military psychiatric ethics arising during war. Practical augmentation of these experiences came through Dr Camp’s assignments as Chief of Psychiatry of an Army hospital in Germany, Chief of the Community Mental Health Activity at a post in the United States, and as a member of the teaching faculty at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
Dr Camp retired as a colonel from active service in 1988. He was awarded the Army Surgeon General’s “A” Proficiency Designator as having attained the highest level of professional achievement recognized by the Army Medical Department. After his military retirement, Dr Camp relocated to Richmond, Virginia, where, in addition to maintaining an active clinical practice of psychiatry and psychoanalysis, he steadfastly directed his professional energies to the education and training of the next generation of psychiatrists. As Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the Medical College of Virginia/Virginia Commonwealth University, he served for almost two decades as the Director of Psychotherapy Training for the psychiatry residency training program.
