Stress management and service: The Bob Rabe story
Education is a key component when it comes to dealing with stress, Bob Rabe believes.
As part of The War Memorial’s commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War, Dr. Judy Jacobs is leading a two-part lecture series titled “Conflict and Healing.” As part of the series, Jacobs will explore the impact of trauma and the journey toward resilience. The first lecture, The Psychology of Trauma, was held on Feb. 23.
The lecture series is co-developed by Rabe, a Vietnam War veteran. Rabe, of Grosse Pointe Woods, has over 20 years of experience in critical incident stress management. The two have known each other for 30 years.
“The War Memorial is a very well-known spot and we wanted to have it here,” Rabe said. “The whole idea is that the more educated, the better you are to handle a traumatic event.”
This month, Jacobs returns to the nonprofit organization for part two: Managing the Stressors of the Day on March 16 at 2 p.m.
“The March one will provide information about dealing with stress on a daily basis,” he said. “We want to help fellow veterans, first responders and military personnel so they can continue on with their life.”
Rabe, 79, is a 1963 graduate of Detroit’s Servite High School. He was drafted into the Army in September 1965. By February 1966, he found himself in Nha Trang, Vietnam.
“It was only a matter of time before I was drafted,” he said. “Everyone told me to go to Canada or get married and I decided against that and went into Uncle Sam’s Army.”
At Fort Knox, Kentucky in 1965, Rabe was given an aptitude test, which resulted in him being chosen for the Military Police Corps. He spent eight weeks at Fort Gordon in Georgia for military police school. During that training, Rabe was instructed in the Uniform Code of Military Justice which was enforced in Vietnam.
As he recalls, 1965 was a tumultuous year in the Vietnam War for America. That year, there were 1,928 American deaths, up from 216 deaths in 1964, according to data from the National Archives.
“There was a lot of anti-Vietnam protest going on, but that didn’t bother me,” Rabe commented. “I figured I had to do my duty.”
As a specialist 4, part of Company A, 18th Military Police Brigade, 504 Military Police, Rabe was responsible for keeping relationships between South Vietnamese citizens and Americans even keeled.
“We made sure that the American GIs got along with the Vietnamese,” he said. “Sometimes, there were hard feelings. Due to combat, they couldn’t differentiate between the Vietnamese civilians and those who were Viet Cong.”
He explained that when on patrol, American military police would be joined by a Vietnamese military police, a civilian police officer, and a Korean military police.
“The reason was to keep the relationships between the three countries on a good basis,” Rabe said. “The Vietnamese took care of the Vietnamese, the Koreans took care of the Koreans, and we took care of the American GIs.”
Halfway through his yearlong tour of duty in Vietnam, Rabe went to Tuy Hoa, Vietnam where he performed military police duty and convoy escorts.
Rabe tells the story from one convoy escort north of Tuy Hoa when his unit was ambushed, an event that took only a few seconds.
“There were three Jeeps in the escort, one in the front, one in the middle, one in the back,” he said. “I was in the back and we were making sure that supplies got through. The middle Jeep stalled, and the convoy continued on. I was driving and we had to push the stalled Jeep. We got ambushed, so I sped up and we got to a bridge that wasn’t too long. They blew up one end of it and I stepped on the gas and was able to go over it. We had a mounted M60 that was returning fire as we were going.”
While war conditions can be less than desirable, Rabe said one morale booster was receiving letters from the U.S.
“We would receive mail every day,” he said. “A class at a California school sent us 500 letters. We tried to write back to these children and kept it light. The letters thanked us for our service and said things like ‘you’re a hero and I hope you come back to the United States.’”
Discharged in September 1967 as a sergeant, Rabe went on to a nearly 40-year law enforcement career. He spent a few years with the Detroit Police Department followed by 26 years at Grosse Pointe Woods Public Safety. He retired from Grosse Pointe Woods in 2000.
“Then the U.S. Marshals called me the day after 9/11 and asked if I would help them out,” he said. “I was with them for six months, providing court security and went after suspected terrorists.”
To aid in his understanding of critical incident stress management during his career, Rabe attended courses at the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation, later being part of crisis teams in Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties.
“When a traumatic event occurred for police, fire, EMS or military, we would have a debriefing, talking about the event. We would sit in a circle with a moderator and talk. After, we could give hugs and handshakes. It wasn’t for the weak of heart. It was a nice feeling to help other first responders.”
Along the way, Rabe was certified in trauma by the Association of Traumatic Stress Specialists in the mid-1980s.
He explained that crisis teams provide free services to those who have experienced a traumatic situation, such as being the lone survivor of a building explosion.
“Someone will call the crisis team and they try to get someone on the team who is in a similar occupation as those involved so they can identify with them.”
Rabe and his wife Michele Rabe have been married for 52 years and have three children and three grandchildren.
For more information on the March 16 lecture and to register, visit here. To learn more about The War Memorial’s Vietnam War Commemoration Celebration, click here.