SPRINGFIELD - Help is available immediately for soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Servicemen and women from earlier wars had nowhere to turn if combat brought them relentless nightmares. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder was not recognized as an illness until five years after the Vietnam War ended.

"Treatment wasn't available until 1980," said Donna Buechler, 59, a licensed counselor and administrator at the Vet Center in Springfield.

The federal government provides free counseling for those who suffer from the disorder, as a result of their experiences in combat zones or from sexual harassment or assault while on military duty.

Buechler, an Air Force nurse in the Vietnam War, has been counseling people suffering from the disorder for the past 20 years. She has worked with veterans from World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam War, Persian Gulf War, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Buechler, a Decatur native who formerly worked at St. Mary's Hospital, said veterans of the current wars could have an advantage in overcoming the disorder.

"The Iraq vets' treatment is usually less than a year," Buechler said. "We're hoping that will prevent long-term chronic PTSD, so that they don't have the problems the Vietnam veterans have had, having to live with PTSD for so long before treatment was obtained."

There are more similarities than differences between veterans of the current and past wars, regarding the symptoms of post-traumatic stress. Symptoms include depression, anxiety, recurring nightmares and impaired ability to work.

"They have intrusive thoughts that are very disturbing to them, about the trauma," Buechler said. "They feel pretty vulnerable, pretty emotional. They may do heavy drinking to try to cover it. There could be problems that occur along with the drinking. There's marital problems frequently."

It is hoped that those returning now will have a smoother road to recovery than earlier veterans.

"The trauma is very, very fresh with the Iraq vets, and they remember a significant amount of detail," Buechler said. "They remember names, the looks on the people's faces they were fighting.

"Which is certainly not the case with Vietnam veterans, who have been suffering from PTSD for possibly 30-plus years. Time takes away a lot of the Vietnam veterans' memories, but the time doesn't remove the emotional pain."

Betsy Tolstedt, administrator and counselor at the Evanston Vet Center, was in Springfield last week to present retirement gifts to Buechler, whose career ends April 28.

Tolstedt said many Iraq veterans are coming in for treatment.

"Many want to do it now before it gets bad," she said.

Some say they are experiencing aftershocks from dealing with hidden explosive devices.

"In the combat zone, they have to be careful with anything they see that doesn't belong," Tolstedt said. "When they get back to this country, they overreact."

Some soldiers are hesitant to be treated for the disorder, thinking it might hurt their military careers.

"Some figure if they wait it out, it will be OK," Tolstedt said. "In some cases, they're right."

Treatment could save a marriage or even save a life. There have been soldiers who have committed suicide after returning from Iraq.

Tolstedt said Buechler is known as an effective, compassionate counselor.

"She genuinely cares about veterans and about their well-being," Tolstedt said. "It's definitely very challenging work. The material people talk about is very difficult."

Many veterans feel more comfortable talking with fellow veterans, such as Buechler.

"A majority of our staff are veterans, which is why the program succeeds as it does," Tolstedt said.

Buechler is not only a combat veteran, but she shares with her clients the burden of suffering from the disorder.

A candy striper at St. Mary's Hospital while in high school, Buechler signed on as an Air Force nurse in November 1967 while the Vietnam War was raging.

For two years, she worked 16-hour days as a flight nurse. She was one of just two nurses tending to 100 wounded soldiers aboard C-141 hospital planes, transporting them to hospitals in Japan and the Philippines.

During her year on the ground, she worked 12-hour shifts, six days a week, at a base hospital in a Quonset hut, where doctors rarely were seen.

"It was a time of sheer exhaustion," she said.

A major event for her, which she believes contributed to her stress disorder, was an attack on the hospital, at Cam Ranh Bay, on Aug. 7, 1969.

"I could hear the enemy running outside the door of the ward. They were trying the door to see if they could break in. They were throwing grenades into the hospital wards. We were entirely helpless. We weren't allowed to have weapons."

The ward door was locked and the lights shut off.

"It was so dark I couldn't even see my hand in front of my face. We just waited until daybreak."

She believed she was going to be killed that night, the longest of her life. She was 23 years old at the time.

Buechler experienced symptoms of the disorder after returning from the war.

"By the time I got back from three years in Vietnam, I was fainting at the sight of blood," Buechler recalled.

Years later, while working as an instructor at St. Mary's in Decatur, she had a critical episode.

"I was very emotional and anxious and crying," she recalled.

She contacted the Peoria Vet Center, the closest to Decatur at that time, and began receiving counseling. Buechler, who served 16 years as a flight nurse in the Air Force Reserve after the war, earning the rank of lieutenant colonel, became a licensed counselor herself. She started in Peoria, moving to Springfield when the Vet Center opened there in 1989.

Buechler, who plans to ride her brand-new motorcycle and continue her flying lessons during retirement, said being a counselor for soldiers has been her best job.

"It is the best counseling you can do, because they really do get better. Seeing life getting better for one of your clients is wonderful, seeing them gaining insight and experience. They work hard getting there."

Huey Freeman can be reached at hfreeman@herald-review.com or 421-6985.