Never too late to ask for help, says war veteran

90 year old World War ll veteran Ted Pipe of Auckland's North Shore. Photo / Supplied

A veteran World War II airman has a plea for former servicemen or women unable to shake the trauma of war.

Ted Pipe, now aged 90, returned home from the conflict a deeply troubled man after watching several thousand men die and spending seven days alone in a liferaft.

But after being haunted for more than 60 years by the horrors he witnessed, he was finally diagnosed as a casualty of war when his doctor, Charles Warren of Pukekohe, told him he was not mentally ill - as Mr Pipe had thought for 60 years - but had post-traumatic stress syndrome and survivor guilt.

Mr Pipe said it was never too late for old servicemen to ask for help.

He saw more than 2000 German sailors perish when the 50,000-tonne battleship Bismarck was sunk in 1941 in the north Atlantic.

Two years later, Mr Pipe spent seven days in a rubber raft without food or water after his Albacore bi-plane crashed into the Mediterranean Sea, killing the pilot and the other crew member.

He was discharged from the Navy as medically unfit with depression in 1944 but it was not until 60 years after the war that Dr Warren made his diagnosis.

Psychiatric treatment and a course of anti-depressants turned Mr Pipe's life around.

"It was like having a great weight lifted off my shoulders," the veteran said. "I had lived with this for 60 years because I thought there was no alternative. But there was and it worked. It gave me a new outlook on life."

Now he says his plea to any old soldier, sailor or airman who may still be going through the depression he went through for decades is to talk about it and ask for help.

"They didn't offer it to me in 1944 because they didn't understand it. Now they do."

Mr Pipe believed the trauma of war had made him mentally ill.

"It took 60 years but I finally understood what going to war did to me. I thought I was nutty. I wasn't. I just needed help to deal with the trauma.

"So my earnest plea now is for anyone still dealing with the trauma of war to talk to a medical professional.

"Take the first step and talk to your doctor. It's such a simple and easy step to take but it may have a huge impact on your life."

Mr Pipe went to war as a young, full-of-life 19-year-old but said he came back a deeply troubled man. For decades, he believed he was mentally ill. He said the post-traumatic stress disorder he and thousands of other servicemen faced after the trauma of war was not understood by the authorities and they were discharged without any help.

"There wasn't a thing," Mr Pipe said. "I came back here and they said, 'You're finished, goodbye.' Nothing."

Mr Pipe said even nearly 70 years after hostilities ended, he believed it was one of the few wars that was justified.

"We needed to stop Hitler and there was no alternative to war."

After his return home, Mr Pipe qualified as an architect, married Olive Ford and had four children. He practised for several years, designed, built and ran several of his own hotels in the Waikato and trained racehorses as a hobby. He also designed churches in Tauranga and Rotorua.

Mr Pipe said he would not go to the Anzac Day dawn service on Wednesday but hoped to get to another ceremony during the day near his Pukekohe home south of Auckland.

The Auckland Museum has the official Book of Remembrance open again this year for the public to post messages during the ANZAC period.

The public can also download the Dawn Service programme here.